The Vulcan (The War of the Gods)
by shenandoahok
Summary: JJ, J'onn, and James fight against Ganthet to save Peppermint, Kara, Amanda, and Rachel, and helps J'onn prepare the DEO and Cadmus against future threats against the Earth. (Please read Guardian: Year One first).
1. Chapter 1

The Vulcan

(The War of the Gods)

(Prologue)

Denise and Danny Reese gave birth to an unhealthy baby girl. She had a disorder called Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser syndrome type two, and it came with a list of other issues. The doctor called it MRKH for short. Her kidneys were abnormally formed, and only one functioned properly. It was a condition called unilateral renal agenesis. The baby spent the first year of her life in the hospital, and in making an attempt to repair the functioning kidney, the doctors had to remove her bladder, and put in a stoma. They named her Vera Reese, a child who suffered so much that sometimes her mother wished she'd die.

"Vera means faith in Russian," Denise said as she held her defective baby. She cried over her as she placed an expensive, mono-system plastic pouch specifically made for the stoma over the hole. It was called a urinary pouch. She cried over her child, and kept thinking to herself that god had cursed her for some unknown reason. In her college years, she used drugs habitually, engaged in unprotected sex with multiple partners, and once had a lesbian fling. She wondered if all that contributed to the curse placed on her child. She didn't want to say it out loud, but the bags were fifty dollars for a box of ten, and sometimes she could get four days out of a bag. Sometimes she only got a day. Sometimes it was less time than that. When Denise and Danny brought the child home, they lived in a nice home in National City. He worked in a computer shop, and made nice money, and Denise stayed at home taking care of her daughter.

It was a four bedroom house, three baths, and a den in the back of the home. A nice hot tub set on the patio, but after the pregnancy, she didn't enjoy it too much. Denise liked to sit on the couch, snort cocaine, and drink bourbon to escape the pain of having a child with so many deficiencies. She'd escape for a moment, into her mind, and then Vera would scream, and she'd pull the top off the pouch, and let the urine drain into the toilet. As long as she stayed high, the pain of seeing her daughter, void of a vagina, minus one kidney, and wearing a urinary pouch, didn't bother her so much. She placed the child in its crib, and hit another line of cocaine, turned on the television, and enjoyed some cable television shows. It was late in the afternoon, and Danny barged into the front door.

"I see you didn't clean anything," he said. With a frown on his face, he dipped his finger into the white powder, tasted it, and then asked, "You're snorting everything and drinking everything. We have to cut back if we're going to survive this."

"I only had a little," she said with a grimace. "Just enough to take the edge off." She sat back on the couch for a minute, and he looked into the crib with a scowl on his face. He turned away from the child, walked into the kitchen, and grabbed a beer.

"She needs you to hold her once in awhile, Danny," she said.

He scoffed at the idea, and then said, "I pray everyday God will work his magic." That was all he said, and then he scuttled off to one of the empty bedrooms that he turned into his computer room. He wasn't fooling her with what he did in there, and even when she confronted him, he just continued to play with himself while watching images of naked girls. Every time he lumbered into the back bedroom, she writhe in disgust because he'd put his seed on the floor, in a napkin, or just about anywhere, except in her. She took another drink of her bourbon, looked over at her daughter, and noticed how still she looked. She ran over to her crib, realized she wasn't breathing, and immediately called for help. It didn't take the ambulance any time.

When the paramedics entered into the house, Danny stormed into the living room, pants unbuttoned, and semen on the tip of his shirt. He was an utter embarrassment as he acted concerned about his daughter.

"Is she going to be okay?" He asked. He had sweat pouring off his fat head, but it wasn't a testament to how much he cared. He had tired himself out looking at porn for the last hour.

"She's breathing, but we have to take her in," the paramedic said.

By the time Vera was three years old, she learned how to put on her own urinary pouch. It made her Momma happy to see that, but her father grew bitter over his daughter's condition. The hospital bills made making ends meet hard. Anger in the household grew, and the father showed utter disdain for Denise.

"Maybe all the drug use you did in college caused her birth defects," he snapped. Vera was four-years-old at the time. "She's going to have a life of problems, and never feel like a woman. She won't even be able to have sex."

"It's nobody's fault. Maybe god is using her for some beautiful plan," she said.

"Unless his plan is to bankrupt us, then I don't get it. I don't get it at all." He threw a stack of overdue notices on the table. "We're losing the house."

"What?" She asked.

"The urinary pouches, the doctor visits, the operations, and just feeding it is killing us," he said.

"She's not an it!" She exclaimed. "What wrong with you?" She looked up at her husband, and then said, "Get out, Danny! GET THE FUCK OUT!"

2013…

Vera sat on the front row in her sixth grade class, and she looked at JJ and Peppermint sitting on the floor on the far side of the room. He handed his girlfriend a peppermint ball, and then she smiled at him. It was her first period, and she had been in Little Africa since she turned five. When the teacher came into the classroom, she looked over at JJ and Peppermint, and asked, "Why are you on the floor?"

Half the students put their heads on the desk, and said, "Here we go." It had become a ritual, and every instructor usually just left them alone unless they were new. Mrs. Simmons was a new instructor, a white woman paying off her student loans by teaching in Little Africa.

"My butt isn't made for the man's seats," Peppermint said loudly while holding up a fist.

"Yeah," JJ said in a deep voice.

"Oh! You're JJ and Peppermint," she said, "Never mind."

Vera looked over at them, and started laughing because they just liked the floor. It had nothing to do with the man's chairs, but they'd go full crazy on an instructor if they had to sit in a chair. Vera had been wearing the same bag for four days, and it had a slight urine smell coming from it. She didn't have any bags at all, and she expected the current bag would leak at any moment. Her mother was short on cash because she had taken up the sport of drinking wine every night, and she'd end up sloppy drunk in a pile of her own funk. Right before the class ended, she felt some moisture coming from around her bag, and she knew it was leaking. She hated the bags so much that she wished death upon herself.

She walked out of class, and looked back at JJ, and he nodded towards her, and then she left. Immediately, he grabbed Peppermint, and headed out the classroom, ran over to her, and asked, "What's going on?"

"It's leaking, and Momma's broke,' she said.

"So, you're out?" Peppermint asked.

"Yeah," she said. "Maybe Momma received a child support check or something, but those damn bags are ninety bucks now."

At Home…

Vera sat on the floor in her bedroom in the nude, and held a bath towel up to her stoma-crying. The urine came out of it, onto the towel, and she didn't have any other way of capturing it. She checked for an extra bag in her dresser drawers, the bathroom, and in her purse, and it drove her insane. "Fuck! Why couldn't you let me die?" She asked.

Her mother walked into her bedroom, and said, "I prayed god would kill you. What good are you? You won't be able to make any babies. You can't even have sex," she said. "You're a culmination of my sins."

"You had all those preachers touching me, trying to heal me, and embarrassing me my whole life, and I'm still here with no vagina and this goddamn stoma," she said. "You can never understand how much I fucking hate wearing this bag. You can never imagine how I feel watching everybody else have normal relationships, go places, and do things while I sit here imprisoned by this damn stoma. Even if I found a boyfriend, what's he going to say when he reaches between my legs, and nothing is there? You should never let a girl live like I'm living. I'm in hell, and I'm so filled with hate that I can't see straight. I hate my father for leaving me. I hate you for having me. I hate this life. You should have driven me to a field, tossed me out the car on my head,, and let the damn wolves eat me."

"You have no soul," her mother said with a grimace. "I've been with you since the beginning."

"All you do is fucking drink," she said. "You're drinking my bags, Momma."

The doorbell rang, and then her Momma went to answer it. "Is Vera here?"

"She's busy," she said. "Hey, JJ, you can't barge into my house like that."

"You're drunk," he said as he walked into Vera's room, and shut the door. "I didn't know you were nude."

"It doesn't matter. Nothing works," she said with a grimace. "I'm an abomination to humankind."

"I don't think that," he said, "Peppermint doesn't think that either."

"JJ, what do you want?" She asked as she cried.

"Oh," he said, "Here."

It was two boxes of urinary pouches, and she began to cry louder. "You didn't have to do this."

"I made an app for the iPhone, and it's bringing me some money," he said, "You're my friend, and you need these."

James sat quietly in his office, chair pushed against the wall, and he put all the Cadmus business behind him. He failed to understand his uncontrollable lust for Maggie, but it shattered his friendship with Kara, and due to his enhanced strength, he no longer depended on Supergirl or the DEO for anything. The superman formula gave him the freedom to be a hero in his own right, and Kara's input wasn't needed or sought. It didn't matter to him that Maggie was gay, but he never once had to go out of his way to hook up with her. She always came to him, to his abode, and slept in his bed. She was gay all day, every day, but between the hours of eleven pm and one am, she was James' sex toy, his private penis massager. She slept in his bed, sullied his sheets, and washed them, but she confessed to being a full-blown lesbian, and she acted as such as soon as she left James' abode. The only person who knew the truth, the whole truth was Kara because no matter how much he showered, she could smell Maggie on him, and what made matters worse was the smell of James on Alex.

James sat in the alien bar on a cool, October day, a day unlike any other day, and babied a nice, cool Apple Martini. Alex and Maggie sat in the booth across from him, and they went on about girl things while he continued to enjoy his drink. Maggie pulled her hair, that auburn hair, back in a ponytail, and James wondered if it was a sign to him. Once she tied it off, she looked over at him, smiled, and then went right back talking to Alex, and it made him wonder if it was a sign. Her ponytail bounced as she shook her head up and down in agreement, and it reminded him of when he pulled her hair back as he rammed her from behind. She liked it like that, and she told him she liked it like that, and he knew she liked it like that because he liked doing it like that.

He remembered right after Nigga Night that she told him what she liked. He just looked at her as she lay on the bed, and said, "When I put my hair up in a ponytail, you know what I want?" He shook his head like he didn't know what she meant, and then she smiled. She squinted as she hit her right fist against the palm of her left hand. "Hard and fast while you grab my hair, and say, 'Take that.' A little ass slapping is always on the menu."

Kara walked into the bar, so easily and so softly, and then she sat next to James, and for some reason, she just stared at him. It was without expression, but filled with a quiet rage that she dared not say out loud. "You're pathetic."

"Nice to see you too," James said with a smile. He didn't seem to care about anything, and then said, "You're just angry because your man is up up and away."

"Oh. I'm going to obviously have to get drunk hanging with your narrow ass," Kara said.

A crimson colored alien took the stage in a white suit. His large forehead was off-putting, but he was a popular man in the bar. The entire place was semi-crowded with a lot of ladies of different hues. The name of the Karaoke Deejay was Vinny Vagabond. He screamed, "It's Karaoke Time!" The entire crowd hopped to their feet, and a few ladies charged the stage, grabbed the microphone, and Vinny played their song.

When James went to pay for Kara's drink, she blocked him, and said, "I can do it myself."

"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked with a grimace.

"That I can pay for my own drink," she said. He could tell that she had issues with him, but it was about more than his sexual relationship with Maggie.

"Okay," he said. "I don't know why you have an attitude."

James moved past Kara, exited the booth, and went over to the bar. He looked down at the acoustic guitar in the far right corner, and said, "Let met get the guitar."

The alien woman behind the bar named Shyla picked it up, and said, "Careful with my baby."

"You know I'll protect it," he said with a smile. When the ladies finished their song, he approached the stage. He had unbuttoned the top three buttons on his shirt, so his masculine, chiseled chest would show. He walked up on the stage with his smooth, tenebrous bald head, and looked right at Kara, and she looked down at her drink like she was uncomfortable with his stare. "I'm going to sing 'Torn' the cover version by 'Boyce Avenue.'" When he strummed the guitar, and sang his song, his voice was deep and melodious, but what made the song powerful, was the tears in his eyes. He sang the song directly to Kara, and basically told her she damaged him, and when he laid out his feelings, it brought a gaggle of heartbroken ladies to the front, and they all cried and sympathized with the hunky black man.

When he finished with the song, the ladies clapped loudly, and then James handed the guitar back to the bartender. When he walked back over to the table, Kara was gone, and it was just Maggie and Alex sitting next to each other.

"You humiliated her," Alex said with a grimace.

"Humiliated?" James asked. "I just wanted her to know she hurt me." He sat back in his seat, and Maggie winked at him, and then he took a quick swig of his Apple Martini. The club bustled with activity, and a lot of aliens danced on the small dance floor while James watched. Shoes clapped the floor, girls spun around in circles, and James sat across from two, secret keeping lesbians, lonely and confused about his life. He didn't want Kara at all, and that was the weird part about things. The way she equivocated on the reason why she broke up, and then how she bounced over to another man's lap made him bitter to any kind of authentic relationship with her. In some ways, he hated her, but he didn't know how to say it. He didn't hate her in every use of the word, but he hated her in the way that mattered. He hated the fact that he hated her, but he did hate her. He didn't hate her because she broke his heart; he hated her because she never acknowledged she broke his heart. She walked around the office smiling and laughing without any clue that she tore his heart completely out of his chest. Before he had a chance to heal from the heartbreak, she taunted him by bringing another guy into the picture. Suddenly, the new guy became the recipient of her affection while James sat in the background asking, "Is this how you find yourself?" He thought maybe Maggie's fake relationship with Alex bothered him, as they sat across from him discussing the plans for their life. What kind of life would they have when she's a lowdown, confused cheater. She liked playing the broken lesbian, but that was her game to sucker in the other ladies. She walked the lesbian walk, talked the lesbian talk, but often found herself bent over a heterosexual's bed, and begging for his penis. When Maggie kissed Alex, James thought, "How does my penis taste?"

James smiled. It was an infectious smile because it made him approachable, and he relaxed his arms. The idea that Kara left abruptly after his song dissipated from his mind, and his demeanor changed. He felt happy for some reason, and the night looked brighter. It was full dark outside, but still early, and a woman with golden skin approached him. Her exotic beauty caught his eyes immediately, and when she approached his table, she stuck out her golden right arm, and said, "May I have this dance."

"Indeed," he said with a smile. She took him to the middle of the dance floor, and he spun her around and around, and then he pulled her close to him. "I find you captivating."

"You're a handsome man," she said with a smile. "You're James Olsen, the CEO of CatCo Media."

"That's right," he said. "Who are you?"

"Jo'Ann Tacour. I'm from the planet Tralaxia."

"Why are you so far from home?" James asked.

"My ship crashed here when I was only seven," she said. "My parents fear we'll never return."

"That's unfortunate," he said. "But I come here all the time, and I won't be shy in the future."

James retrieved Jo'Ann's phone number, and then text her immediately, and when her phone beeped, he knew it wasn't a fake. He told Maggie and Alex that he was heading home, and then Maggie said, "See you later."

"Okay," he said.

Rachel imbued James with the superman formula, and it gave him great powers, but he tried not to use them because he wanted to keep it secret. When he walked out of the bar, he looked around for a moment, and flew straight into the air, but as soon as he tried to fly forward, Kara stopped him with a punch to the face. He flew backwards, and then she punched him to the ground, and it left a huge hole in the middle of a field. When James pulled himself up out of the crater, he asked, "What the hell, Kara? I guess hurting your friends is how you operate."

"I asked you to stop messing around with my sister's girlfriend," she said with a grimace. "Instead, she's practically living in your damn apartment."

She circled him as he looked at her with penetrating eyes, and said, "I purchased that big apartment for us, Kara. For you and me," he said with a grimace. "I wanted to give you all of me, but life didn't play out that way."

"This isn't about us," she said. Her countenance changed, and then she said, "Even if I loved you where would it take us, James? Where would we end up?"

He smirked for a moment, and then said, "It probably wouldn't work because you're a narcissist who cares so much about her image that you can't see straight."

"I see," she said with a grimace. "I'm just going to turn in my resignation, and be done with you."

"I'm not asking for your resignation and I won't accept it," he said. He walked over to Kara, and placed his hands on her face. "I'll get over you. You're not that special. You're weak. We both can take lessons from JJ and Peppermint. They don't give a damn what anybody thinks about their relationship. It's obvious you don't have the character for a meaningful relationship."

"And you do?" Kara asked.

"Yes. I can empathize with the person I claim to love," he said "Maybe you should work on that part of yourself."

She began to cry, and then said, "Screw you, James Olsen." She flew into the air, and then James flew after her. He flew right beside her.

"You suck, Kara Danvers," he said. She flew over to him, and pushed him out of the way, and then he pushed her back.

A few minutes later, he landed on his balcony, and Kara landed on hers. She flipped him off, and then he walked into his apartment, and dove onto his bed.

Little Africa…

It was October sixth of twenty-seventeen, and JJ sat in his Junior English class on the floor with Peppermint, and he handed her a piece of candy. They sat on the far side of the room, and he had some reading material that he handed her. She opened the book, and then smiled. The strange couple wore matching, black body suits, and JJ's suit, came with a black cape. He wore a black skull cap that fit his head perfectly, and he drew a mustache on his face. None of the other kids wore costumes so early in the month of October, but JJ and Peppermint wore crazy things every day.

Miss Jessica Blanchard walked into the classroom, and she might have been twenty-four or twenty-five, and National City would pay for her student loans if she survived for four years as an instructor in Little Africa. She had a thick, southern accent, red hair, frumpy, and seemed out of place in Little Africa. But with so many young people going bankrupt over student loans, it was a great deal because most students wanted to learn. It was her first day of school because their previous teacher died of a heart attack the previous weekend, and now on the last day of the week, Miss Blanchard showed up in the classroom.

JJ and Peppermint were odd, ridiculously odd, and when it came to odd people in Little Africa, they were the oddest in the entire town. When it came to change, they had no reason to change, especially if change changed the dynamics of their relationship, and most people knew it, including all the teachers from Kindergarten all the way through high school. But since a new teacher arrived on the scene, her southern ways would obviously force her to ask JJ and Peppermint why they do what they do.

When Miss Blanchard walked into the classroom, she looked directly at the young couple on the floor, and smirked. "JJ and Peppermint, right?"

Peppermint gasped, and then she said, "Pay up, bitches!" She ran around the room collecting money from everybody.

"What's that all about?" Miss Blanchard asked.

Tommy Tater laughed, and said, "We all made a bet you wouldn't receive a briefing about JJ and Peppermint."

"We said all the teachers receive a briefing on us," JJ said.

Miss Blanchard laughed. "It's true. You guys are the first item on the list."

Later in the day…

After class, JJ and Peppermint sat down by the fence, ate their lunch, and talked about life. It was a small bowl of beef stew that her Momma made, and she made one for JJ. They always shared lunch by the fence on the nice days, and ate inside the cafeteria on the bad weather days. The grass had turned brown and the leaves on the trees turned a golden yellow. Peppermint laid her head on JJ's lap, and then asked, "What's the plan?"

She referred to the invitation to join the Justice Corp, but Rachel told him to stay away from that organization. He had reservations about openly advertising his powers because the government started pushing the idea of a Metahuman Registry. With the advent of powerful super drugs, the government feared of a hostile takeover, and from what he could tell, Superman wanted the registry.

"Cadmus has facilitated our training for the entire summer," he said with a grimace. "Rachel thinks we should stand apart from the Justice Corp. Besides, they support the registry."

"Okay," she said.

"Just know that I don't trust Cadmus either," he said. He placed his hands on her face, and she kissed the inside of his right palm. "It's Amanda. She's up to something, but I can't ascertain what it is."

"Oh. Momma is taking me to pickup my costume for the Friday the Thirteenth dance," she said with a smile.

"Do you need any money?" He asked with a smile.

"Momma has it covered," she said.

"No. I have an extra bill," he said, "Your Momma feeds me all the time, so here." He handed her one hundred dollars, and then said, "I'm going over Tommy's house after school. He mentioned he might be transferring to National City High."

"It's probably true because Becky was crying earlier," she said. "I tried to get her to tell me, but..."

Later in the evening…

It was approximately nine o'clock in the evening, and JJ's Momma had gone to work on the night shift. He had made some popcorn, purchased some soda-pop, and bought some Moon Pies. His girlfriend loved Moon Pies and popcorn, and every Friday, they relaxed in his living room, watched horror movies, and ate junk food. He turned on the television, and put in a DVD of Halloween, and he was ready for the movie to start. When the clock struck nine o'clock, his heart filled with terror because Peppermint had never been late to movie night. She had never been late to anything that had to do with her and him. Immediately, he ran over to his girlfriend's apartment, and her father sat on the couch with his hands down his pants watching the news.

"Is Peppermint okay?" JJ asked with a serious look on his face. He was visibly distressed.

"She's in her room," he said.

He ran to her room, and when he opened the door, she lay on her bed, watched television, and ate popcorn. "You can't knock?" She asked.

"Huh?" He asked. "Baby, what are you doing? It's horror movie night." He sat on her bed, and then gently touched her face. She looked at him with a grimace.

"Did I invite you to sit down?" She asked in a nasty voice.

He laughed. "You're such a joker."

"No. Seriously. Why don't you go home?" She asked.

"Are you feeling okay?" JJ asked with concern. "I can run to the store, and get you something."

"Listen. Just because I don't feel like being bothered doesn't mean I'm sick, JJ," she said, "I just don't feel like hanging."

"Did somebody hurt you?" He asked. "I'll punch their face."

"Just go," she said with a grimace.

He walked over to her, and tried to kiss, but she turned away from him. He looked at her for a moment, and then said, "Tell me what's going on, Peppermint? You're acting in a way I don't recognize."

"I'm acting like I want to act," she said. "Maybe I'm just tired of being your girlfriend. Think about it, JJ? We've been together since babies. Maybe I'm just tired of you."

He fell on the ground in the fetal position, and held on to his chest. The pain of her rejection sent a shockwave throughout his entire system, and the agony was physical. He couldn't believe what Peppermint said to him, and it took time for him to digest it all. He never believed in a physical heaven or carnal hell because his Momma taught him hell was a state of mind. For over three, traumatizing hours, he remained on her cold, hard floor crying, weeping, and begging for clarification, and he kept telling himself he needed to stand to his feet and be a man, but he couldn't. She had ripped out his heart in only a few words, and he didn't know why. It was twelve twenty when he stood to his feet, and Peppermint laid on her bed, with her earbuds in, and listening to music. She bopped her head to the music, and didn't seem to have a care about what she did to him.

"You done with all that slobbering and prostrating on my floor?" She asked. She grabbed a package of gum off her dresser, took out a piece, and popped it in her mouth. Her chewing and smacking were like a form of torture within itself, especially with the mean words compiled on top of that. Slowly, he backed out of her room as she continued to bob her head to the music, smack her gum, and accuse him of being soft for being hurt. It was like she didn't understand their lifelong commitment to each other.

After he left her apartment, he went to his apartment, cleaned up the living room, and threw all the food in the trash. He could barely see in front of him because his eyes were swollen from crying, and no matter how hard he tried to stop crying, the tears continued to flow. His heart hurt so badly that he experienced indifference, a feeling that he never experienced in his entire life, for only a moment. The living room felt cold, but the temperature on the wall read eight degrees. He tried to drink some water, but he threw up in the kitchen sink, and he knew it was because Peppermint's rejection of him had physical consequences.

The next morning he awoke with a feeling of utter dread, and due to the stuffiness of his room, he opened his bedroom window to the dying fall. He experienced summer's spring into winter's fall, and for the first time, he didn't see the beauty in the moment. Everything was ugly, and didn't have an ounce of flare. He looked into his vanity mirror, and the tears had swollen his eyes, and at times he found himself moaning from the pain in his chest. If not for the heartbreak, he'd thought he was experiencing a heart attack.

"You're weak!" He screamed. "Weak! Weak! Weak!" He then burst into laughter, and then into tears, and then he fell on the ground, and cried so loudly that it was disrespectful to the ears of any man. "Rachel, if you're in my head, please tell me what's going on?" He paused for a moment between all the sniffles. "What game is being played? Don't play with my relationship with Peppermint. I beg you, Rachel. "

It was ten o'clock in the morning, and pretty cold for an October day. He walked across the hallway to Peppermint's house, knocked on the door, and her father answered it. The Asian man stood in the doorway with his undershirt and shorts with a mouth full of breakfast food. He looked at JJ like he was just some strange boy from another apartment building, and it shocked him. He choked down his food, all of it, and then smiled. He had some sausage in his teeth, but JJ didn't care. He didn't have the heart to care about the trivial. He stood in front of Mister Lee, red eyed, and tearful, and them Mister Lee said in a somber voice, "Patty doesn't want to see you, JJ."

"But why? Peppermint has never in our lives not seen me." He looked down the hallway, but wasn't paying attention to anything in particular. He didn't want to look directly at his father's best friend as he cried for his beloved. "Don't you think that's strange?"

"You're just teens," he said stoned face, and without any emotion at all. Everybody, and he meant everybody in their twenties and older, told him teens don't know real love. He heard it all the time from as far back as he could remember, and he didn't believe it then and he didn't believe it now. When he gave Peppermint the emerald, heart shaped ring out of the Cracker Jacks box at the age of five, he told her she'd be his wife. "Maybe you guys are growing apart."

"But there's no indication of that," he snapped. He paced back and forth in the hallway, and he couldn't control the anger and the tears, and the utter fear of losing Peppermint. He folded his arms, and looked right at Mister Lee, and said, "Yesterday at lunch we were all lovey dovey." He tried to look around him to see if Peppermint was in the background, but he didn't see her. "After she picked up her dress at Big Block, she seemed different."

"You're like a son to me, JJ," he said with a grimace. "But Patty's my daughter, and she doesn't want to see you. We knew this day would come. Just move on."

"But, Mister Lee! Don't you think it's odd she doesn't want to see me? We've been bonded at the heart since birth. Nothing could make her say the evil and mean things she said to me. Why can't you see something is wrong?"

He sighed, rolled his eyes, and then shut the door like he didn't care. Nothing seemed right in the Lee's household, but he had to find out what happened to his girlfriend. He understood that Mister Lee probably wanted Peppermint to find some Asian boy. That wasn't a shocker, but he knew she wanted him, at least she did Friday at lunch. Nothing made sense anymore, and none of the Lee's seemed reasonable from where he stood in the middle of the cold, unfeeling hallway. He grabbed his books, sat in the middle of the hallway, and pulled out his cellphone. He sent her a text message on how much she meant to him, but she didn't text him back. He checked to make sure the message sent, and then he made sure he sent it to her. He kept telling himself that he wouldn't blast her phone like a serial stalker so he blasted her cell phone like a serial stalker. Everything made him nervous because he didn't know what he had done wrong. His life took a turn that he didn't anticipate or prepare for in his entire life. He worked on his homework, and he could barely concentrate over his watery eyes. Every now and again, he cried out to a god he didn't believe in, and it was a vociferous cry, but she never came out to check on him. It was a sad display of human behavior.

He spent four hours in the cold hallway with no food or water—or even a blanket for warmth. His head hurt. His eyes hurt. But when it came to all the pain he endured, nothing hurt as bad as his heart. He sat against the hallway wall, and just wanted to see his girlfriend's face one time. He thought if he saw her everything would be okay, and what happened on the previous night was just a misunderstanding. It was all he needed for the moment was her almond shaped eyes telling him everything was okay. She walked out of the apartment, and she didn't have on her peppermint dress or any of the things he recognized. She looked like one of the more sophisticated girls who walked with the mainstream crowd.

"Peppermint?" He asked as she stood across from him. Her form fitting dress was part of an old cosplay costume of a sexy cat woman, but she turned it into something a mainstream chick would wear.

"What?" She asked abruptly.

"What's going on, baby?" He asked in a gentle tone.

"I barely recognize you because of your swollen eyes," she said smilingly. "Gawd! You still crying."

"Don't you care that you're hurting me?" He asked. "If you had an ingrown toenail, I'd go out of my way to accommodate you."

She laughed. "I find it amusing how much you care," she said. "You're like a comedy show." She then walked off, and Jimmy collapsed on the ground in disbelief of what she said.

Next day…

The next day Jimmy walked into his English class by himself, and he sat on the floor where he always sat, but didn't say anything when the other students questioned the whereabouts of Peppermint. He sat in the same spot for his entire academic career, and it was customary for him to do so. When his girlfriend entered the classroom, she took a seat, and she was dressed in preppy clothes, with a preppy haircut, and didn't say things like, "Holy sweet tarts, JJ." He looked over at her, and she didn't even acknowledge he existed, but he stared at her nonetheless.

He walked over to her desk, and said, "Peppermint, you aren't going to sit with me?"

She looked up at him, and laughed. With her right hand over her heart, she gave him a smug look, and said, "First of all, my name is Patty. Secondly, I don't sit on the floor. Are you mad?"

JJ scuttled over to his side of the room, sat on the floor, and put on his dark glasses. He tried his best to keep from crying, but it was hard to do.

"You don't sit on the floor?" A black girl with a long ponytail named Cindy French asked. "We've been in the same schools since grade school, and you always sit on the floor, with JJ, and you're pretty happy about it too." She smirked. "It's like you're somebody else."

"Mind your business," Peppermint snapped.

Sniffling, he listened to Miss Blanchard's lesson, but the entire time, he tried to keep his tears from flowing down his face, and act like he had some dignity. "Oh, gawd!" He screamed in class. Everybody paused in place as he slowly stood to his feet, collected his books, and ran out of the classroom. He fell down in the middle of the hallway screaming and crying, and then Cindy French ran after him.

"JJ, you have to pull it together," she said with a serious look on her face. Cupping her hands together, she said, "You and Peppermint have always been an item. There's no way that girl is Peppermint."

"Who else could it be?" JJ asked.

"I know things," she said as a red glow encompassed her body. "There's a few of us imbued with powers. I see your glow. I saw Peppermint's glow Friday, but she's not glowing now."

"So, you know we're meta?" He asked.

"That's right," she said, "But she's not meta today."

Later At Mickey Mac's…

JJ walked into Mickey Mac's, ordered a burger and fries, and ate his food through the mountain of tears. He had all the same items on the table as if Peppermint sat across from him: Mickey Burger, large fries, and the complementary peppermint balls. It was quiet. A few other families sat in the cafe, and ordered their food while JJ ate quietly in his favorite seat. Some little tots parleying in the background as he tried to eat more fries than tears, but he was losing the battle with each bite. He wore his black shades, the very shades she bought him the previous year.

All of a sudden, Peppermint walked into the facility with a group of preppy girls, and they sat in the back of the facility laughing and giggling as if he didn't exist. They laughed, acted silly, talked about everything girls talk about, but nobody mentioned him. She fixed her hair differently than what she normally wore, and she didn't have on her peppermint colored bracelet that he made for her. He looked back at her, and couldn't help but look back at her, and when their eyes met, her eyes rolled and rolled and rolled.

"Mickey, this hamburger is exceptionally tasty today," JJ said with unwarranted enthusiasm.

"It's the way I always make'em," he said with a smile.

The only reason he said anything at all was to make sure somebody knew he existed because Peppermint didn't seem to acknowledge him on any real level. It was an uncertain time-a crazy time, a time when his beloved would no longer be his beloved. He looked over his shoulder at her again, and she slapped her right hand on the table.

"Quit stalking me, JJ," she said loudly. It caught him completely off guard, and he didn't want to argue, so he kindly exited the cafe. He didn't finish his food or try to finish it because he didn't want anybody seeing him in a weakened state. He left without any fanfare, and lumbered down the street like a broken man. His heart raced because of his emotions, and he didn't quite understand how to contain them. He sat on the park bench on the north end of Martin Luther King Jr. Park, and his hands shook like he was about to have a nervous breakdown. He sat on his hands, but he noticed his entire body quivered, and he was crying profusely, and he didn't have any idea of how bad he really felt.

Back at the apartment complex…

Hands clenched, soaked in the pain of the day, and he leaned against the bottom step with his heart sinking into the bowels of his guts. His throat hurt from the pain of crying, and he wondered when he'd recover. It was still the eighth of October, and everything should have been perfect, should have been romantic, but now with all his strength, he couldn't find a way to heal his heart. The moon wasn't exactly full, but it was bright nonetheless, and the beauty was lost on his pain. It was the kind of moon that two lovers would use in a story about their romantic outing, and call it full for the sake of the listener. But because of his heartbreak, his loneliness, and pain, the moon just wasn't full to him; it wasn't full from any angle. He didn't see the beauty in anything, not even his most cherished memories of his Peppermint.

JJ could have absconded to his apartment, into his room, and far away from Peppermint instead of hanging out on the front steps of the apartment complex like a heartbroken goon, but he didn't. He just sat on the steps, and waited for her like she didn't call him a stalker in front of an audience, and now that he thought about it, she had never embarrassed him like that ever. Even though she was quick to anger at times, he had never experienced Peppermint abusing him, screaming at him, or belittling him at any time.

Peppermint meandered her way up the steps, stopped directly in front of JJ, and said, "Face it. We're done, and you need to give me my space."

In a brittle voice, he tried to speak, but his words shook so badly that he barely got out anything before she walked into the apartment complex. Finally, he mustered up enough strength to say, "Okay." He didn't know if she heard it, but he knew he didn't mean it.

October 9, 2017 | The next day…

Jimmy appeared frustrated-early in the morning as he sat in the far corner of the hallway trying to sleep. He had his sleeping bag, a pillow, and a tough back to endure the hard floor. He had slept on the hallway floor thousands of times when Mister Lee kicked Peppermint into the hallway for a less than stellar mark on her report card. Often, and without asking for any recognition, he took care of his Peppermint, and he missed that. He missed washing her back when she took a shower or rubbing her feet before she went to bed. Angrily, he pulled the sleeping bag over his head because he didn't want those memories of the good times racing through his mind. He hated himself because he couldn't stop feeling for her, and repeatedly enduring great losses every time he tried to contact her.

It was seven o'clock in the morning, and he rolled up his sleeping bag, quickly hopped in his clothes, and waited for Peppermint to leave for school. He didn't want to talk to her because he already came to the conclusion that she was mad. His Momma walked up the steps, down the hall, and looked over at him as he stood against the wall with his sleeping bag.

"JJ, why are you sleeping in the hallway?" She asked.

"Something is wrong with Peppermint," he said with a grimace.

"Is she sick?" She asked.

"Yeah. I would say so," he said, "She broke up with me."

She smirked. "I know you wanted to stay with her forever, but maybe she's moving in a new direction."

He looked at his mother for a moment, and couldn't believe she agreed with Mister Lee. He started crying, and then asked, "Why can't the people who love us see something isn't right with my Peppermint?"

"Jimmy, you don't own Patty," she said with an enduring countenance. "Many people fall out of love."

"But not Peppermint and I," he said with tears rolling down his face. "She's all I ever needed or wanted."

"The best you can do is give her some space, so she can figure out what she wants to do," she said with a grimace. "Now, you need to get to school because I don't want another call about you skipping class."

Chapter One

(Dealing with the pain)

JJ's and Peppermint's relationship went back some sixteen years, and now he sat quietly by the fence by himself, at least until Cindy French meandered up the hill in her black, utilitarian pants and black blouse with black boots. She looked like a soldier in a black uniform, and her hair was in a ponytail, and near perfect. She wore a slight amount of makeup, and the way she wore it, made her eyes appear big and beautiful. Her militant ways surfaced often, and almost daily, but for some reason, she used her powers to give JJ solace instead of belittling him for loving an Asian girl.

"I"ve been doing some research of all the footage I have of you and Patty through the years," Cindy said while she stood beside him. "I have all kinds of video clips of you and her. The shenanigans you two get away with is legendary."

"Yeah," he said without any enthusiasm. "Why do you care?" He asked. "I know you're against interracial relationships."

"It's easy to lump all black men who date and marry outside their race into one large category," she said with a grimace. "You've always stood against anybody who had bad things to say about black girls." She paused for a moment. "I have to admit I'm saddened that she's not by your side."

"Something happened to her," he said. "All I have now are the memories."

"Dude, I have the video of when you and Patty did the dance off, and beat everybody in the whole school," she said with a surprised look on her face. "That girl with Patty's face isn't your Peppermint. One, she's not meta," she said. "I can detect metas. Two, Peppermint wears nerd gear all day every day." She looked down the hill at Peppermint mixed with the preppy girls, and said, "She is like us, boxy, and cool about it."

He smiled for a moment, and looked down the hill at Peppermint, and said, "It's hard to see clearly from my position. My life isn't the same, and I don't know if I can go on like this."

"Hey! JJ, you need to quit thinking like that," she said with a smile. "I'm telling you that isn't Patty, so don't go off and do something stupid."

"I've never gone to a dance without her," he said, "We have the Friday the Thirteenth Monster Bash this week."

"Just go with somebody else," she said.

"It wouldn't be fair to my date because my mind would be on Peppermint," he said with tears rolling down his face. "Have you ever had your heart broken?"

"Yeah," she said, "But we're talking apples and oranges over here. I can't compare my little heartbreak to what you and Patty have. You guys have been connected at the hip since kindergarten."

"I'm afraid I've lost her, Cindy," he said with tears rolling down his face.

"I don't think you've lost her, JJ." She turned to him, and said, "I remember you refusing to eat until the kindergarten instructor let you share your meal with Peppermint. I was there when she would jump rope with the girls, and then you'd come over with a cupcake, grab her, and go eat it together. I remember her resting her head on your lap while reading right here in this spot last Friday. Now, all of a sudden on Monday she hates you, and her eyes aren't red. She's not blasting your phone with text messages, and asking why why why. Please. She's a damn robot."

He looked over at Cindy, and asked, "Can you fly?"

"I'm more of a jumper," she said with a smile. "I can jump about twelve miles."

"Have you tried to actually fly?" He asked.

"No," she said. "I thought if I could it would happen naturally."

"I need to talk to Peppermint's mom," he said. "I need to see her now."

"You got twenty minutes," she said. "Let's see what you got."

JJ took off like a rocket, and then jettisoned towards his apartment complex, and landed in front of the building where he lived. He ran up the stairs, through the hallway, and rapped on Mrs. Lee's door. It didn't take her long to open it, and when she did, she was in her bathrobe. She didn't have on any makeup, and it looked like she had just stepped out of the shower. Her face looked tattered, and when she pushed her hair behind her head, he saw several bruises up and down her arms. Immediately, he pulled up her sleeve, and there were so many bruises that he couldn't believe it. She pulled her sleeve down quickly, and he saw the frustration in her face.

"How rude, JJ!" She exclaimed.

"If your husband did this, I'll beat his ass," he said angrily. "He has no right to put his hands on you."

She sat down on the couch, and placed her head in her hands. JJ hugged her, and then she said, "It wasn't Mister Lee. It was Patty."

"Patty would never do this," he said.

"We've been trying to protect you," she said as she looked straight ahead. "We don't know what happened, but she changed all of a sudden. Friday, she came home, and threw her father to the ground."

"After I left?" He asked with an expression of shock.

"No. It was before you came over," she said. "When we got home, he asked her about school, and she snapped. I thought she was going to kill him."

"Why didn't you tell me this?" He asked. "Peppermint would never do such a thing to her father."

"We know you two are metas," she said, "Mister Lee thinks you're telling her to act recalcitrant against us, so we'll kick her out."

"You really believe that?" He asked with a grimace. "She broke my heart, and I've been trying to figure out what's going on. She has said mean, evil things to me, and I know my Peppermint wouldn't say those things."

She looked down at her watch, and then said with a calm demeanor, "You best get back to school. Class is about to start."

Later in the day…

JJ stayed after school to work with his band, Black Mold, and they were upset at him because he missed Monday's practice. He grabbed his electric guitar, a peppermint design instrument with Peppermint's face in the upper corner, and walked up to the microphone, and then said, "Peppermint broke up with me." He paused for a moment, and looked at all the other members of the band. "I'm taking it harder than I should, but I think if we play some good music, it can ease the pain."

"Let's do it," Stephen Banks, the drummer said.

"Let's do that old, sixties samba rhythm, the one about the devil," JJ said with a half smile. "Sympathy For the Devil." The music started, and the groove felt perfect to him. He danced around the stage like he was meant to perform for big audiences everywhere, and when he started singing, the little ladies meandered their way to the auditorium, and rocked back and forth with the broken hearted fool. He sang like his heart wasn't hurt at all, and then he saw Peppermint wander into the auditorium, and look from afar. There were faces of all hues in the crowd, and they rocked with him as he went into a rift in the middle of the song. He played and played and played, and he loved his girlfriend's face looking on from the back. He hoped she felt something, a little something, but she didn't smile at all.

JJ walked to the back of the stage, grabbed his acoustic guitar from the locker, and placed his electric guitar inside the cabinet. He pulled out the stool, sat on it, and put the strap over his shoulder, and his acoustic guitar had a picture of him and Peppermint eating peppermint cotton candy at the National City State Fair. They were only about six-years-old, and it was one of the best memories of his childhood. He began to strum the strings, and played a little tune, a tune unrecognizable to most of the kids standing below his feet. But when it came to the auditorium, the acoustic was great, and the little acoustic guitar with the picture of his childhood painted on it was loud. He looked directly at his girlfriend across the room, and sang, "If you could read my mind, love. What a tell my thoughts could tell." He sang in a strong voice, a flowing voice, and he could hear the sniffles in the room of all the girls understanding his hurt. It was a slow, and melodious song with passion, empathy, and caring for every word. And as the tears rolled down his cheeks, he sang, "I don't know where we went wrong but the feeling's gone, and I just can't get it back." When he finished with his rendition of Gordon Lightfoot's song, he watched his Peppermint in the back standing with no emotions at all. The girls in the front where all crying, and he heard sniffles from his bandmates, but nothing from his beloved. She stood svelte and tall with her dignity intact as he broke down in front of everybody, and poured his last ounce of dignity into a song that he hoped would force her empathy to bubble to the surface. She walked out of the auditorium as quiet as she walked in, and he nearly passed out until Stephen caught him.

"I'm not well, guys," he said with tears rolling down his face. His voice cracked, and was brittle. "We have the talent show in December, and I'll be ready. I promise."

Later in the evening…

JJ sat quietly on the park bench at Martin Luther King Jr. Park, and looked out over the land, across the way, and through the trees. He thought how to accept the reality of his situation, and maybe learn something from it. The leaves fell haphazardly to the soggy ground, and he wanted so badly to enjoy the fall of every leaf with his beloved. He cried so much that his eyes were tired, and he had a slight headache, but that wasn't his worst pain. Hurt, he pulled out his cellphone, and went to his pictures of Peppermint, and there were thousands of them between his phone and the cloud. He had thousands more on his computer at home, and to make matters worse, he had binders and binders of her from the time they were born up until the previous week.

So many cars passed by with their bright lights, and he didn't care. They slowed down to get a good look at the black boy crying, and begging somebody to shoot him in the face, so the pain would just go away. He stood up, and acted like a football player, but nobody else was around to see his tomfoolery. "You're supposed to be tough, boy. Play football, and grunt." He laughed, but it was the laugh of a kid about to have a mental breakdown. He didn't know anything about football at all. He screamed, "Dribble that ball, kid. You're wasting your life by not playing basketball." He laughed. "Yeah. I'm losing it, Peppermint." He laid down on the soggy ground, screaming like a maniac, and cursing at the lights. Suddenly, an electrical bolt came out of his hands, and obliterated the light pole to his south. He tore it in half. Immediately, he pointed to the other pole, and ripped it out of the ground, and then tossed it into the other pole until he had electrical wires arcing all over the area. When the cable bounced around the street, he thought grabbing the cable would kill him, and he did just that because he craved death. He ran up to the bouncing cable, grabbed it, and it gave him such a rush that he caused the entire area to go dark. He became so angry that he didn't die that he waited for the police to arrive so they could shoot.

When he lumbered to the middle of the park, he felt a wind brush past him, and he immediately said, "Go home, Kara. I'm not up to dealing with your shit tonight."

"Well, you're going to," she said as she stepped in front of him. "Aren't you one of the damn good guys?"

"It's time for me to die," he said with a grimace.

"You're acting stupid, JJ," she said.

"If I don't give you any choice, you'll kill me," he said. "You'll do it because it's the right thing to do."

"What is all this about?" She asked.

"Oh! You haven't heard?" He asked.

"Heard what," she said with her arms folded.

"Peppermint broke up with me," he said with a grimace. "She said she doesn't love me, and never did."

"That's bull," she snapped. "If she said that, then she's not Peppermint." Suddenly, Supergirl grabbed her head like she experienced a tremendous amount of pain. JJ grabbed her as she slumped to the ground, and kept her from falling. He laid her down, and then she rolled from side to side, and JJ panicked. He quickly held her in place, and put an electrical field around her head to block out all telepathic communication.

"I'm receiving a crazy message," she said with a grimace. "It's gibberish."

"Rachel, if you're doing this let Kara go," he said loudly. "I'm going to release the field, but let her be." When he released the field from around her head, she slowly climbed to her feet.

"It was gibberish. Time is broken. Time is broke," Kara said with a grimace. She hugged him, and said, "What's going on, JJ?"

"Was it Rachel?" He asked as Kara sat on the ground, and held her head. He picked her up, flew to the top of the old warehouse near his house, and set down on the roof top. Kara paced back and forth, and then sat down on the black rooftop with her legs crossed, and then looked up at JJ with a grimace on her face. Her countenance was one of dismay. "Are you okay?"

"I don't know. We spent almost the whole summer training with Rachel," she said with a look of stress on her face. "Maybe it was Rachel, but she seemed stressed. Time is broken seemed like a warning."

The young man walked over to the edge of the roof, looked out over the area, and then turned to Kara, as she lay sprawled out on the roof. "Kara, I'm worried." He knelt down beside her, grabbed a rock, and drew a straight line on the black roof. He pointed to the center of the line, and said, "Here we are on the timeline. There's a possibility that we exist in different times along this line."

"What are you saying?" She asked.

"I might be forty-five right here on this line," he said, "Relaxing on a beach somewhere." He laughed for a second. "You and James could be married somewhere on this line."

She scoffed. "That's not happening," she said, "He's a major asshole."

"That's beside the point," he said. "We know The Destroyer exists somewhere on this timeline." He put some ticks on the line, and then said, "Somewhere on this timeline, he will kill some major players who have the ability to traverse time forwards and backwards. It's highly possible."

"Rachel is extremely power," she said with a grimace. "Her mind is like nothing I've ever seen." She looked directly at JJ, and then said, "What's all your powers?"

"I don't know," he said. "I'm growing in power. Rachel said at some point I would go through a kind of apotheosis, and ascend to the level of the gods."

"Who do we know who could manipulate time?" Kara asked.

"According to the lore, the Destroyer kills his brothers, falls in love with his sister, and marries the Green Witch," he said calmly. "They can all manipulate time or send messages through time to their younger selves."

"But time is broken," Kara said, "What does that mean?"

JJ stopped pacing, looked back at Kara, and then said, "Time doesn't break." Puzzled, he folded his arms, and then said, "We could be on a different timeline or something."

"From what? How would we know?" She asked.

"I don't know," he said with a grimace. "All I want in this world is my Peppermint, and everything else takes a backseat to that."

"I know you're hurting, JJ, but think about it," she said, "Peppermint is acting strange, we're getting strange messages from telepaths, and you're wrecking the city. Something is amiss."

"I know I screwed up," he said. He shook his head in disbelief. "I know you're going to keep throwing it in my face, but you get mad too."

"You only know because James can't keep his trap shut."

"You two should just bang, and get it over," he said.

"Oh screw you, JJ," she said as she flew into the air. "Keep your eyes open. I'm going home."

"I'm heading to Cadmus," he said with a grimace. "Something isn't right."

"Seriously?" She asked.

"I know you have work in the morning," he said, "I will just drop in on Rachel to make sure everything is okay."

"There and back," she said with a grimace. "Recon only. If something doesn't look right, you come and get me. Understand?"

"Yes, ma'am," he said.

She gave him a smirk, and said, "Watch out for that asshole."

"Will do," he said.

Cadmus…

The night air had a tinge to it, and Gotham had an odious smell, a disturbing smell that JJ thought resembled something dead. He flew over Cadmus, a large military compound that looked innocuous from afar. It had the gate guards, soldiers, and all the things to make it official, but in reality, it was a testing facility to create monsters designed to kill powerful beings. Their projects had endured, in spite of Superman's interference, scrutiny and setbacks, but JJ wasn't a Cadmus project at all. He watched the facility, for the lights, for the movements, and for any sign of Rachel. Even though Cadmus was a clandestine organization, he remained in contact with Rachel at all times, and it was strange he hadn't heard from her in two weeks. In fact, it disturbed him because she constantly kept him up to date on pertinent information. The reason why he knew so much about the history of the world and the telepaths was because she taught him, and taught him well.

He flew directly to the main building, and an electrical field encompassed the entire area, but it didn't have the power to keep him out of it. He stood directly over the force shield, and a glow encompassed his body. Once he got the frequency right, he was able to descend down to the building without any problems. Rachel taught him how to manipulate electronics with his powers, but everything took patience to do it undetected, and that was what mattered to him the most.

Quickly, he walked right into Rachel's lab, and eight scientists worked on special projects, but he didn't see Rachel at all. He knew all the people in the lab, so they weren't alerted when they saw him standing in their breakroom. A man named Nathan Socks, a clean cut man in his thirties, walked up to him, and said, "If you're looking for Rachel, I haven't seen her in two weeks."

"She didn't tell me she was taking a leave of absence," he said. Looking directly at Nathan, he calmly stated, "She would tell me. Where's Director Waller?"

"Haven't seen her either," he said.

In the corner of the room set an old terminal computer, and JJ snatched off Nathan's security badge, and said, "Sorry, but I'm not sorry," he said, "I'm finding Rachel if I have to go on a killing spree."

"Don't you think you're overreacting?" He asked.

"Probably," he said as he walked over to the terminal. "Nathan, stand with me so I don't look like I'm doing something illegal."

"But you are," he said. "You're going to get me fired."

"Oh my, gawd. Quit whining, and get over here," he said, "I'll beg Supergirl to make a visit at your daughter's next birthday party."

"Promise you'll asked her?" He asked.

"I'm going to ask her," he said, "Little girls need strong women around."

JJ placed his hands slightly above the keyboard of the terminal, and accessed the computer's video recordings at lightning speed, and he continued to pull up video until he came to the ones of Rachel. He went through the footage one screen at a time, and it took nearly an hour to cover it. Nathan quickly lost interest, sat at one of the tables, and read a book while he continued to comb through information.

"Are you able to read at that speed?" Nathan asked.

"Yeah," he said, "It's why I'm such a good investigator."

He wrote several algorithms that only searched for data she accessed, and it was a powerful query that pulled back everything she touched while working in the facility. He began to go through all her documents, and read them all until he came across an article on the Guardians. Immediately, he printed off the article, and some other information off the computer, and then gave Nathan his card back.

"What did you find?" He asked.

"It's classified," he said. "Nathan, you don't want to know what I saw. Just live your life, love your family, and hope we build the technology to fight the threats against our world."

Wayne Corp…

JJ flew to the top of Wayne Corp, squatted on the ledge, and read over what Rachel had written concerning the Guardians. It made him nervous because he didn't think beings that powerful ever left Oa.

Rachel's Diary Entry…

September 22nd, 2017

Since Michael Baker tutored me in the telepathic myths of old, I've been fixated on the Destroyer, and his coming. Unfortunately, I'm not the only person in the universe who's concerned with the coming of this telepathic god, and what he has in store for the universe. Humankind is on the brink of true robotic technology that will revolutionize the world; however, we rarely think about the robotic technologies beyond our world. It's not only mortals throughout the universe waiting for the return of the Destroyer, but a planet of sentient robots awaits his return, for he created them. These robots are called Zeta Units, and they have the ability to do right or wrong, depending on the moment. At least two Zeta Units are within the ranks of Green Lanterns, and I believe at least one is on Earth. I fear one of these units might try to come for the people closest to me for we know the family line of the Destroyer. Zetas can take on the identities of their targets according to the legends.

End of Rachel's Diary

It was late, real late, sometime after twelve in the morning, and he promised Kara he wouldn't stay in Gotham long, but since he was about a mile from Rachel's domicile, he wanted to check it out. When he raised up, he felt a giant boot in the chest, and it caused him to fall off the building, but he immediately caught his balance, and flew over the building to see if it was the Gotham Knight. He assumed it was him because he actually knew a lot about the man behind the mask. He flew down to Rachel's apartment building, and when he reached her door, he opened it with his abilities, and the alarm wasn't set. That automatically told him she was either dead inside or left abruptly or even left under duress. When he entered her apartment, he turned on all the lights, opened all the counters, doors, and everything to ensure nothing hid in them. He knelt down for a moment, and looked at the carpet. He studied it for a possible tussle in the middle of the room, but didn't see anything. He took a whiff of the air, and then said, "I smell you, GK. I'm only here because I haven't heard from her in two weeks. If you want to help me, find Amanda Waller. She's been missing for the same amount of time."

"Have you found anything pertinent?" The voice asked.

"I have classified information that I'm not at liberty to divulge, but it doesn't give me information on her whereabouts. However, if I find out the information I have is of importance, I will brief you." When JJ turned around, he didn't see anything, but he knew a great deal about the Gotham Knight. He studied him over the summer, and watched his activities closely.

Tuesday 10th of October...

The smell of bacon and eggs cooking on the stove caused JJ to leap out of bed because Peppermint often cooked breakfast for them on school days. He raced out of his bedroom, down the hallway, and into the kitchen, and in some ways, he felt ashamed in his disappointment of seeing his Momma instead of his girlfriend. He had slept for only five hours because of his trip to Gotham, and he didn't find anything from Rachel's apartment. He worried about her a lot.

"You're home early," he said with a straight face.

"Oh. Guess who came by my work?" She asked. Her countenance changed, and he knew exactly who came by.

He sighed. "Dammit, Supergirl."

"Damn right, JJ," she said with a grimace. "You're one of the powerfulest beings on the planet. Do you know how hot a lightning bolt gets?"

"Hotter than the surface of the sun," he said. He leaned on his right hand, and looked down the table because he knew she was going into a long winded speech.

"That's right," she said, "You can't just use your powers because you're upset with life. You can't go tearing up the city, and begging for people to kill you." She paused for a moment, and then said, "I know you love Peppermint, but the Lee's are happy about the breakup."

"Why?" He asked with a grimace. "Why would they breakup two people in love?"

She turned off the fire under the food, and fixed him a plate, and then said, "You're living in a delusion, JJ. You're all about Star Trek, music, writing, and things, but you don't see the world in which we live."

"I see everything just fine," he said. He felt the entire room heat up, and his mother had on her serious face, and since he turned fourteen, he hadn't really seen her motherly face.

"You smile. The teachers at school love you," She said with a serious countenance. "You kind of go through life unaware of things, of how people truly feel." She paused. "The Lees don't want you with Peppermint because you're black. You might be smart. You might have built an app that's making you money. You might be a lead singer in a rock band, but all they see is a black boy." She placed her right hand on his shoulder, and said, "Your father and I raised you right, but I still worry about your safety every day. Every black boy shot and murdered into my emergency room reminds me of you, and most times the kid on my table didn't do anything that deserved a death sentence."

"So, you're saying Mister Lee forced Peppermint to break up with me?" He asked.

"She might have done that on her own, but he asked me a year ago to intervene. He didn't want you to take it personally, but he has no intentions of letting you marry his daughter.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

James sat back, relaxed, and drank his chocolate latte while reviewing Snapper's work, and it was impeccable as usual. Due to Snapper's level of professionalism, James pretended to really look it over, but he had to actually go through it because Snapper often threw mistakes in at least one article just to mess with him. The monitor roared in the background with the images of the South Side fire, and at least two people were badly burned. Suddenly, a family of three appeared on the screen who were caught in the fire, and a tall black man wearing a mask, trench coat, and short hair picked them up with some kind of electrical field, and set them down on the ground. He flew up to the fire, placed some kind of hermetic field around the fiery part of the building, and put it out in a matter of seconds. He then waved at the firefighters, flew away, and disappeared. James sat in his chair, and smiled at what JJ had accomplished, and then he received a text from the sixteen-year-old hero.

JJ: Text Message:

I'm doing Kara's job. Give her some freedom every now and again. Slave driver!

End of Text

James looked at the text message, and shook his head in disagreement. He text him back, and said.

James: Text Message:

Whatever. I haven't seen her since yesterday.

End of Text

JJ: Text Message:

She might have overslept because she was scolding me in Little Africa last night. Did you go by her apartment?

End of Text

James: Text Message:

No!

End of Text

JJ: Text Message:

What the hell, Olsen? She's your freaking soldier between eight and five, right? I'll go by her apartment, and wake her up. Just know I'm tired as hell. I took a trip to Gotham last night, and ran into GK. That fool kicked me off Wayne Towers.

End of Text

James: Text Message:

He asked you to leave?

End of Text

JJ: Text Message:

Yeah. With a foot to the chest. It happened so fast that I didn't see it coming. I was like I'm done. This dude is spooky crazy.

End of Text

James tapped his black pen on the desk, and then he walked out of his office, down the hallway, and into Snapper's office. The old man looked up from his desk, and then back down at his work. He had another editor working in the background, and another guy looking over some photos.

"Old man, you've seen Kara?" James asked with a grimace.

"Not at all," he said with a smirk. His face was hard, and his hairline started in the center of his head. "She could have given me the courtesy."

"I have a friend checking on her whereabouts right now," he said. The smell of Snapper's office was one of pure funk, like some old sweaty clothes, and James couldn't stand it any more. He walked through the offices, and checked on his people-making small talk and trying to ease the pressures. For James, he often felt somewhat apart from the rest of the staff, and worked alone, in the field, and in cramped spaces. Immediately, he realized JJ was absolutely correct about checking on his troops, and felt ashamed about it.

Walking back to his office, he felt nervous about the whereabouts of Kara. She was more than capable of taking care of herself; however, there were people with the capabilities of killing her, including JJ, the kid looking into her whereabouts. Both him and his girlfriend were super dangerous because they received the most energy from the particle accelerator, and he watched the young man take a full, uncontrolled blow to the face from Kara, and then told her his granny hit harder than her. But even though he had great powers, he didn't carry himself like he had great powers. Kara spent the entire summer traveling back and forth to Gotham with JJ and Peppermint, and helped them better control their powers. He was with them too, but JJ's ability to control lightning and electromagnetic fields was incredible. His phone buzzed, and it was a text message from JJ.

JJ: Text Message:

I asked Alex and Maggie nicely not to point their weapons at me, so now I have them dangling out the window.

End of Text

James: Text Message:

Seriously?

End of Text

He sent a picture of the two hanging upside down out the window in an electromagnetic field. Frustrated, he immediately text him back, and order him to apologize.

JJ: Text Message:

Fine!

End of Text

Maggie: Text Message

This kid is a colossal dick, but he has skills in collecting evidence. He's meticulous. Alex hates him though.

End of Text

James To Maggie: Text Message

Let him finish his work. Some of the best trained him, including Kara.

End of Text

Maggie: Text Message

Great! He called Alex grandma, and now I have to deal with her age insecurities.

End of Text

James: Text Message

Oh! He did that on purpose. He must have known she'd react negatively to it.

End of Text

JJ flew onto the balcony, walked into James office, and then said, "I know Alex is upset, but she acts like she's the boss of me, and I'm not having that."

"You didn't have to call her grandmother," he said.

"You know how it works," he said, "I took the quickest route to trip up my enemy."

"She's not your enemy," he said.

"She is now," he said laughingly. He walked over to James' desk, and sent several photos to his wide screen television. He had one photo of a fluorescent spot with the letter A beside it. "James, this is high-grade kryptonite."

"Define what you mean?" He asked.

"This is the stuff Rachel made at National City University about six years ago," he said with a grimace. "a thimble size would be lethal."

"Damn," James said.

JJ brought up another photo of a smashed wall, and three spots of blood. "I suspect her attacker to be approximately five foot eight inches."

"How can you tell?" He asked.

'It's the angle that she hit the wall," he said with a grimace. "This is solid concrete, so her attacker was pretty strong. Notice how perfectly her bed is made? This probably happened within minutes of her entering her apartment last night." JJ looked at the screen closely, and then flew up to it. He hovered in the air, and said, "Dammit, James! How did I miss the camera?"

"Does it activate with movement?" James asked.

"It looks like it," he said. "I have to go back."

"I'm coming," he said with a serious look.

"You know nobody should see your monkey ass flying," he said with a grimace. "You lead from this office, and let me handle the field work for now."

"Well, hurry the hell up!" James exclaimed. He watched JJ fly out the window, and he waited patiently for the young man to hurry up and get the information. His secretary got him another Latte, and lunch, and then about one o'clock, JJ returned.

"It took a minute to crack that damn password," he said shaking his head. "That girl is strange. You just never know who a person loves until you find out their password."

He smirked. "I bet it was iloveMon-el or some nonsense like that," he said.

"How'd you know?" JJ asked. "Anyway, I sent the pictures to your email."

"I'm glad he's gone," he said with a grimace.

"What are you talking about? You don't even like Kara like that," he said. "If you're crushing on her, then say things like I like you instead of go jump in a volcano. It makes a big difference."

"How did you mess up your relationship with Peppermint? Tell me that since you're so smart?"

"I've cried myself to sleep every night trying to figure out what's going on with Peppermint," he said with a grimace. "I'm usually pretty good at figuring things out, and I'm stumped. I'm flying solo, and it's hard, James. She's been by my side everyday since we were kids. The longest we've ever been apart was when management sprayed the apartments. That was for a day. We caught chickenpox together."

"Damn!" A slender Asian woman was in the picture, and James looked at the picture closely. "I think I know her."

"That's Ju Gee," he said with a grimace. "She's listed as a rogue Cadmus agent, and Rachel told me they absconded from Gotham to avoid Waller's reach." He made the photo a little bigger, and then said, "Look at her eyes."

"Odd," he said, "They're silvery."

"Rachel crippled her telepathic abilities, but her boyfriend, Michael Baker, is from a clan of telepaths, that goes back some one hundred thousand years."

"One hundred thousand years?" James asked. 'How do you know this?"

"Rachel trained me on these people," he said. "I can't fight the good fight while being in the dark. "Our minds have been crippled from a poor education system, but the human race is some two hundred thousand years old."

"Makes sense," he said. "But why kidnap Supergirl?"

"Can't determine that without knowing the enemy," he said as he zoomed in to look at Ju's face. "Look at Supergirl hunched over. Her hair's a mess."

"You're worried about her hair?" James asked.

"Not like that," he said, "They fought, but Ju's hair isn't messed up. It's damn near perfect."

James wiped his face for a moment, and then said, "Maybe she's that good."

"Maybe," he said with a grimace. "This ancient order of telepaths are badass, and can control Kryptonians."

"But why would they go through all this?" James asked.

"For love. To love freely," JJ said. "What would you do for true love?"

"I don't know if I've ever experienced it, " he said.

"My bond to Peppermint was the strongest force I've ever felt in my life, and we're not telepaths," he said with a grimace. "Imagine if I could leave my body, go inside of her mind, and create a world of complete serenity and love. It's two telepathic minds combining on a celestial plane."

"That sounds incredible," James said.

"Now, imagine some outside force killing your boyfriend, and taking all of that away," he said with a grimace.

"That would suck," he said.

"Now, that you no longer have that peace, you have to spend all your time manipulating one of the powerfulest minds in human history, and she wrecks your brain. But not only does she fry your brain, she shows you that your dead lover is actually alive, but you're not able to reach that heavenly level of consciousness because the mission damaged your brain. How would you feel?"

"I'd be pissed!" James exclaimed.

"She might be able to use Kara's blood to restore her cognitive abilities or manipulate her into taking down Cadmus," he said with a grimace. "It's what I'd do."

"Cadmus is powerful," James said as he paced behind his desk.

"The order of telepaths is over two hundred thousand years old," he said, "This clone of the Great Mother may be around twenty thousand years old. I don't really know. The Great Mother is over two or three million years old. So, all I'm saying is we're not dealing with people who don't know how to survive."

"How do we keep the telepaths out of our heads?" James asked.

"How much porn you watch?" JJ asked.

"Huh? Why?" James asked.

"Fool, how much porn you watch?" JJ asked. "Quit being on shy and stuff."

"Every once in awhile, and daily," he said. "It's my thing."

"When you feel a tingle in your head, think breast, thighs, ass, vagina, and so on," he said, "Telepaths tire quickly when their targets can deter and evade their advances. I implore you to take this serious because if we come in contact with Michael Baker, he'll take us out with a mere thought if we're not prepared."

"But where is she located?" James asked.

JJ folded his arms, and shook his head in the negative. "They're located in that asshole's territory, but I don't know if that's Ju," he said.

"But you see her on the screen," James said.

JJ handed him the excerpt from Rachel's diary, and sat down on the floor. "If a Zeta is on Earth, he can assume any form." He paused for a moment. "They have great powers, and are familiar with Kryptonian strengths and weaknesses."

"You think this Zeta took on Ju's form?" He asked.

"It's probable," he said, "I can't give you a definitive answer without some serious investigative work."

"We have to find her," he said wiping the tears from his eyes.

"I figured you loved her," he said as he patted James on the back. "We'll find her."

"How do you know that?" He asked.

"Because I have an insatiable need to know she's okay, and I'm going to get GK to look for her." He walked over to the scanner in James' office, and scanned the diary entry, and then said, "I'm sending this to myself from your account. I've sent all photos and materials to my email, and it will give me an opportunity to investigate this further."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Wayne Manor…

A giant anti-electrical net laid on top of JJ, and it caused him excruciating pain throughout his body. As soon as he landed in front of Wayne Manor, a drone shot him with the net, and he didn't know what to do. At first, he struggled. Every time the de-electrifying barbs touched his skin, it sucked his powers, and it was like being drained of energy. He tried to concentrate, and gain his mental footing, but the drone zipped by, breaking his concentration repeatedly. He tried his best to implement the calming techniques that Rachel taught him, but it was hard. Frustrated, he placed his hands underneath his buttocks, and started vibrating. A wall of dust formed between him and the netting until he completely submerged himself under ground, and burrowed his way to the manor. Suddenly, he saw the Gotham Knight-dark and shadowy-out of his peripheral vision, and then the drone raced towards him in an omega attack pattern. A lightning bolt descended out of the sky, and blew it to pieces.

"Mister Wayne, I didn't come here to fight you," he said in a loud voice." He paused for a moment, and looked around the area quickly. On guard, he suspected a surprise attack from the Gotham Knight, but he had faith that Mister Wayne would retreat. "My name is James 'JJ' Johnson. It's no longer just Rachel and Amanda missing."

The Gotham Knight landed in front of him, and he immediately asked, "How do you know my identity? Have you been spying on me?" He was large and ominous, and the way he moved about was tactful like a man trained in the ancient arts.

JJ watched him cautiously because the dark figure in front of him remained guarded in the way he stood: right leg back, left leg to the front, and hands up prepared to strike or protect his face. "I learn everything I can about my enemies and my allies before I engage in battle," he said. He placed his hands behind his back to show Mister Wayne that he wasn't trying to fight. "My girlfriend and I spent hours studying your movements in our spare time, and over time we ascertained your identity. The laws of probability allowed me to surmise your identity. It's really simple math. With what I know about you, I was ninety-two percent sure of who's underneath the mask." He paused for a moment, and then asked, "Do you know who I am?"

"Of course," he said, "How's your chest?"

JJ laughed, and then said, "Ha ha! I didn't think you joked." He looked at Mister Wayne, and grimaced. Then he asked, "But what if I couldn't fly? You would've killed me." He stepped closer to the dark, shadowy figure, and asked, "What knowledge have you gained on Amanda's whereabouts?"

Bat Cave…

JJ looked around the Bat-cave for a moment, and couldn't believe the wealthiest man in all of Gotham operated out of a subterranean cavern. The dampness of the place made him feel uncomfortable. On the platform to his front, and somewhat off to the side, was a large computer system that looked more like industrial strength machinery, the kind the military used. He had several, large monitors that were bigger than seventy-two inches, and it looked extremely expensive.

The Bat car set in the distance on its own platform, and it was extended off the ground. In the very front of the cave, another platform with old uniforms set on it, and JJ flew over to it. He had heard of Robin from some of his studies with Rachel, but it all seemed like a crazy dream. He stood in front of all the old uniforms, and some of them were tattered. There was a steel suit that looked intimidating in its design, and from the abrasions on it, it looked like he fought Superman in it.

"You're not crazy, are you?" JJ asked. "You're passionate. The Guardian is passionate too."

Mister Wayne took off his mask, and then laughed. "James Olsen is just crazy."

"Maybe. But I fear we need crazy because Supergirl is missing," he said. "She's a mentor and a friend, Mister Wayne. Very important."

"I've lost contact with Superman too," Mister Wayne said. "This means we have no serious muscle."

"We have James Olsen," JJ said, "He's been imbued with the superman formula. Then there's me." He paused for a moment. "I'm pretty strong, but I don't want to brag though."

"I see," he said as he took off his cape, and placed it on the back of his chair. He pulled up some video footage from his training with Cadmus, and it was a video of Peppermint tossing a tank across a field, and then James Olsen caught it.

"Oh yeah! Peppermint is, also, pretty strong," JJ said.

"Obviously," he said, "All of you are. Didn't you say she broke it off with you?"

"Yeah. She's been acting weird," JJ said with a grimace. "It's crazy because we've been inseparable since tiny tots."

"It's possible she's not your girlfriend. She's acting strange and Rachel, Amanda, Kara, and now Clark are all missing."

Mister Wayne clicked away at his keyboard, and pulled up a blurred image of a large, blue man with Rachel in his clutches, and then he flew into the air with her. "What was that?"

"It's not a what," Mister Wayne said, "That's a who. It's a Guardian of Oa. One of the creators of the Green Lantern Corp."

"But which one?" JJ asked.

"That's Ganthet," Mister Wayne said, "I retrieved some audio right before the abduction."

Ganthet's and Rachel's Audio:

Rachel: Why are you here, Ganthet?

Ganthet: I received a message from myself nearly seventy-years in the future from now.

Rachel: That doesn't answer my question. We don't have anything for you here.

Ganthet: Luciferous destroys Oa in the future.

Rachel: That's what he does. He's the Destroyer.

Ganthet: He murders over one hundred billion! I have the manifest of the two ships that destroys Oa. I'm taking you, the clone, Kara Olsen, Clark Kent, Patty Johnson, and JJ Johnson into custody.

Rachel: For what? You have no authority over us.

Ganthet: Yes we do, Harbinger. Colonel JJ Johnson and Colonel Patty Johnson commanded the Grace, and it played a major role in the destruction of Oa.

Rachel: They would be well into their eighties. You're going to tell me ...

Ganthet: You know what Luciferous can do. He restores them to their youthfulness. Surely, you've come into the knowledge of who you are.

Rachel: Let me tell you a secret, old man. JJ is the Vulcan, and you'll see his powers when you touch his Peppermint.

Ganthet: You've given a human being the god spark? Are you mad?

Rachel: I did what needed to be done.

Ganthet: I'll replace her with a Zeta, and weaken him mentally.

Rachel: You're messing around with a power you don't understand. We're not going...

End of Audio

"What happened?" JJ asked with a grimace.

"It cuts off," he said, "But now you know Peppermint isn't who she appears to be."

JJ walked over to the stage, and said, "I'm detecting a strange energy coming from here. It's alien tech." He turned to Mister Wayne, and said, "Can you detect for any alien tech in Gotham other than what you have?"

"You're thinking he has them stored somewhere locally?" He asked.

"Yeah. Ganthet still has to tussle with me, but I'm not sure if I can overcome the power of his ring, strength, and telepathy. If I challenge him near or around his ship, it should give you and Olsen enough time to free our people. But I've calculated the probability of me defeating him in a fight, and it's pretty low."

"If we can free a captive, we might stand a better chance against him," Mister Wayne said. "What's the timetable?" Mister Wayne asked.

"Thursday," he said, "Thursday the Twelfth of October will be the day that the gods know better than to mess with us."

Little Africa…

JJ flew over his apartment complex, saw Peppermint talking to an older caucasian man, and he flew onto the roof of the warehouse. He watched her eyes closely for any signs of her robotic nature. Since his senses were heightened, he peered down at her, and looked directly into her eyes. When she blinked and then opened her eyes, for a microsecond, he saw a spark of silver. It was like a reflection, and only a keen eye could see it, and due to the fact he didn't know about it earlier, he completely missed it.

"I didn't think anybody would reply to my profile," he said with a smile. He pulled off a black, backpack off his back, and then said, "I'm six feet two with a four inch pensis, espcially equipped for the Asian ladies." He pulled out a hand carved statue of a little man, and placed it on his knee. She looked at it with a straight, uncaring face, and then looked up on the roof, and started smiling at the dorky, white guy. He could barely see anything because he kept bursting into laughter, and he knew his Peppermint would never tolerate such foolishness. She hated when people turned Asians into fetishes.

JJ paused for a moment, and then wondered if he heard him correctly. It was the strangest thing he had ever heard anybody say. He had never talked about his penis like that, at least not in a bragging manner. It was inappropriate, but at the same time, he knew if he actually did that to his girlfriend that he'd probably kill the man.

"A lot of people over look a man with a four incher, but I'm pretty proud of what god gave me. It's not too big, or too small, but it's just right for the Asian ladies. You know what I mean?"

JJ gasped. "I'm sleep," he said to himself. "Who would say such a thing?"

The guy presented the statue to Peppermint, and then said, "This is in honor of my four inch penis."

"Nice," she said with a grimace. "So, you like the Asian ladies?"

"Only the Asian ladies," he said, "Y'all so docile and sweet." Jimmy shook his head in disbelief because he had never heard such foolishness. He hated all the Asian fetish nonsense, and whenever somebody acted like Asians were little toys or dolls it infuriated him. When the guy opened up his backpack, he pulled out several, small sexual devices, and JJ flew down because he had enough of the madness. He leaped down to the man, and stood directly in front of him.

"How old are you?" JJ asked.

"Why?" He asked.

He looked at the man's face, hair, clothes, and shoes, and then said, "You're about thirty-four."

"That's exactly right," he said.

"She's sixteen," JJ snapped.

"Age ain't nothing but a number," he said while licking his lips.

"And death ain't nothing but a part of life," JJ said. Suddenly, he put an electrical field around the guy, and then turned up the temperature. The guy began to sweat, and scream. "I'm seriously thinking about killing you." He hopped in his little white car, and took off down the road.

Peppermint stood on the steps with her arms folded, and then said, "I was going to give him some too."

"Really?" He asked. "You let that guy talk to you like you were some kind of sex toy!"

"You know I've had sex with several guys today," she said with a smile. "It was easy. Just went right into the bus station, and let several guys screw me in the bathroom." JJ slapped her, and she fell to the ground. He was breathing so loud and panting, and at times he let out a cry. She laid below his feet, and just laughed and taunted him.

Quickly, she flipped to her feet, and tried to run, but JJ caught her in an electrical field, and flew over to her. He suspended her in mid-air, and circled her as she remained in suspended animation. "I respect that you're sentient. You know right from wrong."

"Let me down," she said. She had to strain to speak because he had her locked down in the stasis field. He set her on the ground gently, and then released the field from around her body. She looked left and then right, and asked, "So, you know now?"

"Yeah," he said, "How can you hurt people so easily?"

"Orders," she said with a grimace. "The Guardians want your head."

"Whatever happens in the future has nothing to do with me," he said with a grimace. "Shouldn't you be protecting us? Is Luciferous not your god?" He walked around her, and gazed up on her in Peppermint's form. "Please let me see you?"

"You want to see me in my natural form?" She asked with a serious look on her face.

"Yes," he said, "I want to know who I was singing to."

She laughed for a moment, and turned into a solid silver woman with silver hair, blue eyes, and a curvaceous body. "When I turn to the Guardian as a failure, he will kill me."

"What is your name?" JJ asked softly.

"Nia Prog," she said.

"Well, Nia," he said, "I'm willing to fight for your life."

"Why?" She asked with a serious countenance.

"Because you're sentient," he said, "You're a life form. I try to respect all life."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

For JJ, the return of his Peppermint was paramount in his life. It was his main goal, and everything else came a distant second. He told everybody to prepare for battle; Nia, to make an ambrosia laced knife; James, rest so he could better control his rage. Rachel drilled into his mind on what he needed to kill a god, and something about ambrosia had an adverse affect on them. He watched Nia closely as she worked, but he didn't know if he trusted her. He didn't trust anybody, especially James Olsen. His relationship with Maggie upset him badly, and he felt like he couldn't trust anybody who would do what he was doing.

After he talked to James and Maggie until about nine o'clock on the previous night, he felt their minds weren't in the right place. It was their body language as they did Facetime, and he wondered if he was hasty in his judgment of the Guardian. He tried working through some complexed calculations in his head to analyze his biases against National City residents, and he did, but he still felt James' mind wasn't prepared to tussle with Ganthet. James gave off vibes at times that the mission of finding Peppermint was secondary to his penis, and that was a problem.

Perhaps the idea of matching wits with the likes of Ganthet disturbed him on a mental level because he read stories of his evil deeds. He knew of the Oan's powers, of his telekinesis and telepathy, and every second of the day, he calculated his probable losses. He made a chart of the pros and cons to battling with a superior beings, and most setbacks happened within the members of the DEO.

Nia-all silvery and astute-stood in front of him analyzing the chart, and she had a laser pointer explaining J'onn's telepathic abilities, and JJ didn't like what she said, but it was based on analytical data of what they knew about him.

"So, you're saying his telepathic abilities won't withstand an attack from Ganthet?" He asked with a grimace.

"He's not whole, JJ," she said. "There's been spies from my world who've analyzed his capabilities, and his contact with humans has been a detriment to his abilities. We can retrain him, but we don't have time."

"If he can divert a telepathic attack, he's an asset," JJ said. "Of course I'd love a full blown telepath on the mission, but if J'onn can't do it, I'm not going to pressure him about it." He pulled out a thumb drive, and stuck it into his computer, and had three levels of encryption on it. When he pulled it up, an image of James Olsen appeared on the screen. It was him in Japan in a Martial Arts studio when he was in high school. "Rachel made me study these charts until I became nauseated."

"You're a tad agitated," she said. "What's wrong?"

"Rachel designed the particle accelerator to turn me into a god and Peppermint into a goddess," he said with a smile. "Daily, I'm increasing in strength and power." He paused for a moment, and then his countenance changed. "Unfortunately, she gave James the superman formula."

"Okay. But…?" She asked.

"It has side effects," he said with a grimace. "I think they're manageable most of the time, but he may become explosive in battle."

"Is that bad?" She asked.

"Only if we can't control him," he said with a grimace. "In addition, the formula caused him to have an insatiable sex drive. An uncontrolled rage with an insatiable sex drive may cause him to rape somebody in the moment. This is the only reason I haven't told Alex about what's been happening after dark between him and Maggie. The superhero formula is probably contrary to James' character, so we need to watch him closely."

"I'll be recording everything, and I can detect anomalies in his character," Nia said. She sat down in the chair to the rear of the room, and she looked somewhat disheveled. "You've analyzed your team, but what about yourself."

"Yes. I've analyzed myself too, but it's really you that we need to discuss," he said. "Are you or are you not with me all the way?" He asked poignantly.

"No matter what I tell you, it can't minimize your distrust in the girl who assumed the identity of your beloved," she said.

"But what was your mission?" He asked. "Why me?"

"You're the leader," she said with a grimace. "We only received a small bit of information from the future, but you were the fourth in command of the Golden Knights when they destroyed Oa. I have the recording right after Oa exploded."

Colonel Johnson's Last Recording

Colonel Johnson: General T'McGinnis, this is Colonel Johnson over.

General T'McGinnis: Go ahead, Colonel.

Colonel Johnson: Moxia launched their fleet. It'll take them eight years to make it to Doraxia.

General T'McGinnis: Quantum warp to Moxia, and take out the planet with your gamma drive.

Colonel Johnson: But that's four hundred billion souls!

General T'McGinnis: Do you have a problem with my order, Colonel?

Colonel Johnson: Yes, sir! We killed one hundred billion on Oa. We've killed thirty billion on Brion Noir. When does the fucking killing stop, sir?

General T'McGinnis: You gave your allegiance to the Golden Knights, Vulcan. You knew it wouldn't be easy. For us to achieve our goal of peace, we have to do the heavy lifting now. If I had done this fifteen years ago, Su'Ra would be alive today.

Colonel Johnson: After I do this, Peppermint and I will tender our resignations.

General T'McGinnis: You speak for her?

Colonel Peppermint Johnson: I side with my husband. We have to look our kids in the faces at the end of the day.

End of the Last Recording

"Nia, am I the bad guy?" He asked. "You're telling me that future me is part responsible for killing a trillion people?"

She shook her head in agreement, and then said, "It appears that way."

"No, no, no, Nia," he said, "I'm not killing a trillion people. That's crazy talk," he said, "I would never follow anybody like that." He looked down at the ground, and then said, "I now realize I have to work on my philosophical reasoning." He paused for a moment. "If we survive this, can you come and live on Earth?"

"JJ, my family is in danger on Oa," she said. "The Oans will kill them."

"But the only way for me to become better is through outside influences," he said. "Did you even feel anything when I sang to you?"

She laughed. "It was hard as hell to keep from weeping," she said, "I ran out the room. I'd like to stay on Earth, but I must head back to Oa to protect my family."

He paused for a moment, and then wondered if she knew Peppermint's location. He looked at Nia in the face, and she had a sadness about her. "Do you know where Ganthet's keeping my Peppermint?" JJ asked with a grimace. She sat back in her chair, looked straight ahead, and then said with a straight face.

"We work off the premise of the body never knows what the head is doing," she said softly. "He purposely moved his location, so we couldn't do exactly what we're planning on doing, JJ." She paused for a moment, and then said, "After walking in her shoes, and seeing the way you love her, I realized I could no longer assume Peppermint's identity."

He folded his arms, looked out his bedroom window, and then asked, "What kind of race judges people off of future, possible events?" He asked with a scowl on his face. "There's no guarantees that I'll be a commander in some alien military, and destroy worlds."

"There's no guarantees you'll be alive after tomorrow anyway," she said with a straight face. "How can you be sure I'm not luring you to your doom?"

"I can't be sure about anything," he said. "All I can do is my best. If I can't have my Peppermint back with me, then I'll rather die fighting. I'm going into this battle like it's the last one I'll ever have."

She took off her headphones completely, laid them on the nightstand, and then asked, "Why is she so important?"

He sat on the edge of the bed, and said, "Probably because of her proximity to me. Her father and my father were best friends until some gangsters killed my daddy. I was about twelve-years-old then." Turning back to the window, he said, "I've considered her my betroth since we were five-years-old. My heart isn't complete without her."

"Don't you find this monogamy confining?" She asked with a grimace. "There's worlds out there where men and women have multiple spouses."

He laughed. "Peppermint is all I desire. I'm not an advocate against polygamy, but all my heart desires is my Peppermint." He sat down at his computer desk, and said, "Surely, I would think people in polygamous relationships have worked out all the sordid details of how it would work. They wouldn't be like James and Maggie who sneak around behind Alex's back, and call it just a fling."

"Of course not," she said with a grimace. "That would be childish."

"I don't like Alex at all because she's so damn bossy," he said.

She laughed so hard that she nearly fell out of the bed.

"What?" JJ asked.

"It's because you're bossy and judgmental yourself," she said with a grimace. "Have you ever listened to how you talk to everybody?" She picked up a stack of records, and said, "You literally have everybody's bathroom schedules in these notes."

"Oh that's not true," he said, "I don't have Kara's schedule. Rachel did all the charts, and I'm using them to assess my team. Anyway, Alex and I are nothing alike." He laughed, and then said, "Maybe a little, but that's as far as I'll go."

"Why do you care about Alex so much if you don't like her?" She asked.

"Because I see the love in her eyes for Maggie," he said with a grimace. "It reminds me of how I feel for Peppermint." He paused for a moment. "It's not my place to say something to her about Maggie, but if my Peppermint slept around on me, then I'd like to know. Only then could I make a cognizant choice on the direction of my relationship."

"This is the reason I never wanted this assignment, JJ," she said. "Your Patty is so pure of heart that her only desire is to make you happy."

Thursday October 12th 2017….

When he flew to James' apartment at five-thirty in the morning, James had Maggie draped over the bed while he violated her without any control. The grunts and growls sounded like a feral animal. He gripped her hair with both hands, rammed her from behind, and she screamed for more. Nia and JJ peered into the room, and then turned away from the vile act. It was full dark, and most people were still in bed asleep, but not James and Maggie; they glistened in sweat, and then when he unhinged himself from her backside, he said, "I'm developing feelings for you."

"James, I'm not prepared to take it there," she said. "It's just sex. Just the raunchy, no-kissing only banging kind of sex."

JJ walked into the bedroom while the two lay bare, and then said, "Ahem!

James, I'm thinking you're not understanding the gravity of what's going to happen today," JJ snapped. "Have you had any sleep?"

"Dude! Don't you knock?" He asked with a grimace. "Kara returned home last night according to Alex, so once we get Clark and Peppermint back we'll be done."

"What part of we're dealing with a god don't you understand?" JJ asked. "Nia, please come here." She stepped into the room covered in silver from head to toe, but very exotic looking. "This is a Zeta. I haven't been talking just to hear myself talk"

"Do you know the whereabouts of this Oan?" Maggie asked Nia.

"My name is Nia by the way," she said. "No. Once we're put on assignment, he relocates the ship."

"Listen, guys? We need to head to the DEO," JJ said. "Hank is in danger. Alex is in danger."

"But Kara is there," James said.

"Your friends aren't very smart," Nia said.

"Given the kind of Kryptonite I detected in Kara's apartment, I don't think she could easily escape off Ganthet's ship, James." He paused for a moment. "We're talking about the laws of probability here." He looked over at Nia, and then said, "Please assume the form of James Olsen." Immediately, she turned into James Olsen. "Now assumed the form of Maggie?" He asked. She turned into Maggie, and then back into her Zeta form.

"Damn," Maggie said. She lay on her back, and James sat beside her, rubbed her face, and kissed her on the mouth. His interaction with her actually looked like love, and on some levels, JJ found it extremely confusing because she confessed to loving Alex. "We have to make sure I guess."

Maggie hopped off the bed, ran into the bathroom, and James rolled over on his back. "He's much much bigger than four inches," Nia said with a smile.

"James, go take a shower, and get dressed," JJ said. "We need to hurry."

"Maggie's in there," he said.

"Wait? You can screw together, but you can't shower together? Am I missing something?" He asked.

"Fine," he said.

"These National City folks are weird," JJ said to Nia.

DEO…

The DEO office building didn't look any different than any other building on the block from the outside, and JJ knew he didn't truly belong in National City. He walked in the place with the Zeta Unit dressed up to look like Peppermint, and James and Maggie were with them. They entered in the elevator, and James punched in a special code, and the elevator took them underground. As soon as JJ stepped off the elevator, a swarm of agents descended down on him, and told him to raise his hands.

"What's this all about?" JJ asked with a grimace.

A dark skinned man walked up to him, and said, "You don't have clearance." He stood right up to JJ, and stuck his right index finger in his face.

Suddenly, all the weapons flew out of the soldier's hands, and JJ tossed them to the other side of room.

"Hank, this is Kara's trainee," James said.

"I came here to see my mentor," he said.

"Fine," Hank said. "Once you see her, I want you and your girlfriend out of my building."

"Dick," JJ whispered under his breath.

"Your friend has an attitude problem, Olsen," Hank said. "Kid needs a telepathic, mental adjustment."

When he saw Kara on the other side of the room, she had on a black uniform on like Superman wore back in the eighties. He ran up to her, tickled her, and she started laughing loudly.

"Quit, JJ. This is abuse," she said smilingly.

He hugged her for a long time, and said, "I was so scared something happen to you. You're the only friend I have in National City." He looked over at James, and then said to Kara, "James is a dick. Maggie is a dick. I just met Hank, and he's a colossal dick. Basically, you hang around a lot of horrible horrible dicks."

She smiled, blinked, and then said, "That's not very nice."

"I'm just happy to see you're okay," he said with a grimace. "Where were you?"

"She was out of town with her cousin, Mister Johnson," Hank said.

"Mister Johnson?" JJ asked. "Calm down, old man." Peppermint walked over to Jimmy, and kissed him on the lips, and that meant Kara was a Zeta. James and Maggie stepped backwards, and then he looked directly at Supergirl, and said, "Zeta, take me to the real Kara."

Immediately, she hopped off her chair, walked around the table, and clapped slowly. "Do you know why I came here?"

"Yeah," he said with a grimace. "You came for Hank, but you can't have him."

She transferred into a full Zeta Unit, and had a Lantern ring on her right hand. "Superman and Supergirl couldn't hang with an elite Lantern, Vulcan. What makes you think you can?"

He walked over to Hank, and turned to the Zeta, and said, "I'm trained a little differently than our Kryptonian brothers and sisters. In addition, they're like gods. I am a god." As soon as he said god, a lightning bolt hit the Lantern's ring, and caused it to malfunction. He walked over to the robot, and said, "I want my people back."

The Zeta Unit laughed for a moment, and said to Peppermint. "You betrayed your race."

"No. You betrayed our race by turning your back on Luciferous," Peppermint said.

"Your entire family will be killed over this," the Zeta said.

"Entire family?" JJ asked. "How many are we talking?"

"I have two kids," she said.

JJ looked around the room for a moment, and then over at Hank. "Where's Alex?"

The Zeta Unit laughed. "I handed her over to Ganthet."

JJ floated halfway up to the ceiling, and appeared to be in a deep meditative state. He could hear his allies asking what was going on, but Hank told them to be quiet. Suddenly, electrical tentacles came out of his hands and body, and entered into the Zeta Unit's mind. It looked like the Zeta Unit malfunctioned, but it was nothing more than JJ extracting information from her. She screamed and screamed, and then cried out for him to stop, but he didn't until he found the whereabouts of his people. When he finished with the robot, she fell to the ground, and cried.

"You've violated me," she said in agony. "You've mentally raped me."

"I didn't want it to be like this," he said, "But you have my beloved, and I can no longer waste time with this." He turned to Hank, and said, "Suit up, old man." He turned into a large green dude with muscles and everything.

"Give me three men to escort the Zeta Unit to the holding cell," Hank said. "Let's go get our people."

"They're located at the Gotham Shipyard," JJ said. "Once we're in Gotham, we'll stop at Mister Wayne's mansion. He has a box for Zeta to put us in, and then deliver us to Ganthet. We're using the Trojan Horse approach." He paused for a moment, and then said, "If the Trojan Horse method doesn't work, then we might have to hit him on a mental level. If that's the case, Hank you have the lead." He turned to the tall, emerald colored man, and asked, "My sources have you as a level two telepath."

"I'm actually a three," he said with a grimace.

"Sheesh," JJ said with a smirk. "Hank, what's your mind-blocking level?"

"Oh. I'd say a two," he said.

"If we survive this, we have to train on the basics," JJ said. "I know you want to fit in on this planet. I think we all do on some level. But if you have to lesson yourself to fit in with the human race, then it's really not for you." He looked over at James, and said, "This goes for all of us. We're in a world with powerful telepaths who can steal pertinent information if we don't have the ability to protect it. I'm sorry that I have to take you into battle against a god, and you're not mentally ready for this, but we have to fight with what we have and not what we wish we had." He continued to go over different possible scenarios in the field, but didn't want to saturate them with too many possibilities. "I hope I've given you enough information on contingencies in case the first plan doesn't work." He looked over Hank, and said, "Check on learning! What do you do when you feel a tingle in your mind?"

Hank raised his hand, and said, "Block, divert, and send the telepath out your mind."

Zeta, take the lead. Hank, right. I'll take the left, and James to the rear." JJ pulled out his cellphone, and then threw a picture of Ganthet onto the screen, and said, "This is our enemy, folks. He has one of the powerfulest emerald rings in the universe. He has the ability to fly with or without the ring. Please note that he has as much power as a Kryptonian in his fist. He's telepathic and telekinetic. We can injure him with a hard enough hit, but we have to pierce his heart with an ambrosia dipped knife for him to die."

"What's the probability of killing him?" Hank asked.

"Remote," he said, "Less than thirty percent chance. Our goal is to free our people from his clutches. If he's victorious, he'll take us to Oa, and execute us for the universe to see, but we can't afford that to happen. Stay focused on freeing our people. Let's make sure this is a good victory and not a Pyrrhic victory."

"Check on learning," JJ said. "What's the only way to kill Ganthet?"

James raised his hand, and said, "Ambrosia dipped blade to the heart."

Wayne Manor:

JJ walked into Mister Wayne's mansion by himself while Hank looked through the van to map out the best seating situation. JJ insisted on a documented seating chart based on strengths and weaknesses of each person, and he knew everybody wanted to choke him out because he looked over everything, and ensured the arrangement was adequate. When he walked into Mister Wayne's mansion, he pulled out his tablet computer, and had an image of the Bat Plane attached to the building. He gave the diagram to Mister Wayne, and he looked at the young kid for a second with a grimace.

"Tell me you can do this?" JJ asked in a strong voice. "I wouldn't ask you this if it wasn't vital."

"You're asking me to bomb Ganthet's ship if you can't stop him," he said.

"I'm asking you to kill us to protect secrets," he said with a grimace. "I'm asking you to kill us, and then beef up the Justice Corp. I'm asking you to find the powerfulest humans on the planet to build up the Justice Corp, so another alien doesn't come to our world, and dictate their will on us."

"So, you're willing to kill your beloved?" He asked with a grimace.

"You've studied my life. You know how I feel about her," he said, "If I'm asking you to use a nuke, then you must understand I know what Rachel and Amanda have in their heads. I wouldn't ask this of you unless it was of the utmost importance."

Mister Wayne looked down at the ground, and then asked, "Did you tell your team of this possibility?"

"Leaders make decisions, and sometimes the decisions aren't pretty," he said with a grimace. "My only solace is I'll die with my beloved Peppermint, but Rachel's and Amanda's liberation is the goal. If I free them, but can't free Peppermint, then I will go to Oa with my beloved, and face death."

"You scare me," he said, "You're like Amanda."

Back at the van...

Nia placed them all in the back of the van according to Hank's seating chart, and JJ looked it over, and switched up James' and Hank's position, and then gave a detailed reason for it. He then said, "Ganthet is left side dominant." Everybody climbed into the vehicle, and strapped in while Nia ensured everything looked right.

"Let's go," NIa said.

"About freaking time," James said.

"You got something to say, Olsen?" JJ asked.

"You're micromanaging," he said.

"Whatever. I need to get a headcount," JJ said, "Count off." When they finished counting, they had five individuals including Zeta, and then JJ said, "I expect to return with all our people, but Amanda and Rachel are our primary focus."

"What about Kara, Alex, and Peppermint?" He asked.

"They are my focus," he said, "But we can't let Ganthet get away with Rachel and Amanda," he said, "They hold secrets vital to the survival of humanity."

'You're just now telling us this?" Hank asked.

"I'm sorry about that, sir. If I can't free Rachel and Amanda I've ordered GK to blow up the ship with a nuke," he said.

"You'll kill Peppermint?" Maggie asked.

"If I make that call, Hank, you have to make sure everybody gets away. I'll stay with the ship," he said, "I'll go down with Peppermint."

"You'll kill Alex?" Maggie asked.

"I have to protect our world," he said, "When I trained with Kara and Rachel, they told me leaders sometimes have to make the hard decisions. I'll use my powers to ensure we don't have to use a nuke, but it's there in case we need it.."

Docks…

A large spacecraft set in a field approximately two hundred yards from the docks. In the background, Wayne Towers stood with a giant, black tumor on it, and it waited for his command. The Bat Plane looked like a large bump hanging off the side of the tower, and when Nia opened the double doors to the rear of the van, he looked Ganthet dead in his beady little eyes. JJ's hands were clasped, and when he walked out of the truck, he realized the Oan was approximately six foot six in height, sapphire, and thinning white hair. He wore a black business suit, and his emerald ring looked intimidating on his left hand.

"My brothers are going to love ripping you and your beloved into pieces," he said with a grimace. "You've killed billions in the future."

"I'd never do that," he snapped. "I find it hard to believe that I would kill like that under my own volition."

"But you do," he said. "I'll find all the future Golden Knights from Earth, and wiped them out."

"Don't do this," Maggie said, "Give me back my Alex."

He laughed. "I have no empathy for humans," he said, "She'll work well in our brothels."

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning flew out of the sky, and Ganthet blocked it with the power of his ring. He then hit JJ with a beam of emerald light that knocked him backwards. A spider web of lightning-strikes broke all the constraints on his people's wrist, and then J'onn took flight, swooped down on the Oan with a flurry of fist. Ganthet blocked every punch, and then grabbed the Martian in a headlock, threw him to the ground, and kicked him across the field. JJ grabbed J'onn in an electrical field, and brought him back to him.

"Do you really think you have what it takes to defeat me, child?" He asked laughingly. "I just so happen to come to Earth when you're still weak. You haven't reached to the power of a god yet, and I'm going to make sure you never do."

"I'm trying to preserve your life," he said. "I want my people, old man."

As soon as he said, "Old man," an emerald fist knocked him into the ground, and then whacked him several times. James Olsen ran up to the Oan, punched him in the stomach, and the guy flew into the ocean.

"Nia and Maggie, please get our people," JJ said, "We'll keep this sapphire dude occupied." He flew straight into the air, and it rained electrical sparks down on the Oan, striking him multiple times. He screamed loudly, and just when he thought he had the Oan at a disadvantage, he punched JJ into the ground, and caused him to pass out briefly. When he came to, the Oan had Olsen and J'onn by the neck with his emerald ring, and dragged them towards the ship.

JJ flew into the air, went at full speed, and tried to hit the Oan from the back, but he ducked, and flew into the ground. An entire plume of dust flew into the sky. He hit the ground, and another lightning bolt came out of the sky, and struck him in the head. The blast completely tore off Ganthet's suit, and he was ripped with muscles.

An Asian girl in a white dress flew out of the ship all of a sudden, and yelled, "It's time to hit'em with the sticky icky." Several balls of goo hit the Oan, and he was encased in a solid thing of crystal, and then all of a sudden JJ hit him with a bolt that threw him backwards. Peppermint flew over to JJ, and he kissed her for a long time.

Ganthet slowly climbed to his feet, and then he looked twice as big. "Is he growing?"

"Hell to the yeah," Peppermint said. "He's shopping from the plus size section now."

"If I give the order, you get the hell out of here, Peppermint," he said, "I don't want you around here if I have to call in a nuke."

"A nuke?" She asked.

"I can't let Ganthet leave with Rachel and Amanda," he said. Suddenly, Ganthet grabbed him, and threw him to the ground.

"Oh no you didn't," Peppermint screamed. She shot a laser out of her fist, and the giant Ganthet flew backwards. He hit Peppermint with a backhand, and she flew clear across the field, but JJ caught her with his electrical field, and brought her back.

"You'll never free Rachel and the clone of the Great Mother," the Oan said. When JJ and Peppermint took a fighting stance, a sonic boom happened, and it threw them off balance. Some kind of fighter ship appeared out of nowhere, and then landed. It covered a large portion of the field, and it was nothing like any ship on the planet. A stairwell appeared, and a emerald colored woman with orange hair dressed in a Yellow Lantern uniform came out of it. She had a helmet with a black veil over her face. Her hair was long in the back. She had about three grown, brownish looking men with her and one female of the same brownish color, but they all had orange hair. JJ and Peppermint ran up to her, and bowed.

"General, why do I know you?" JJ asked.

"You're an empath," she said with a smile. Her disposition was sweet, but authoritative. "Ganthet, stand down."

"You've broken the timeline, Green Witch," he said.

JJ immediately thought the General and all the other Lanterns looked like an envoy. "Why are you here?"

"Oa, Moxia, Thoraxia, and Brion Noir all exist," she said, "The General rewound time, and restored all the life he took."

"But why," he said, "We lived a lifetime together, and one day he told his wives that he couldn't live with all the lives he took." She paused. "He sent me back in time to tell you to leave Earth be. Now free them, Ganthet."

"Green Witch, you've never been dishonest with me throughout time," he said, "I'm going to trust that my brother has restored Oa."

"One more thing," she said, "Su'Ri will be born in twenty forty nine, and I beg you to treat her like the god she is. The General spent ten years refining her, and he told me to tell you that he shouldn't have to do that." J'onn and James limped up to the group, and the Green Witch said, "Heal them, Terry."

Terry-a Golden Knight-touched James, and healed him completely. He did the same to J'onn.

The General walked over to the Martian, grabbed him by the head, and looked at him for about ten minutes. J'onn screamed so loud, and then when James tried to intervene, Ganthet, said, "Don't. She's increasing his telepathic abilities."

She stepped back, and then J'onn said, "I feel energized."

"You can return to twenty ninety with me, and I'll take you to the planet Emerald Star," she said, "There's seventy six thousand green Martians on that world."

"Are you serious?" He asked.

"It's a beautiful world flowing with milk and honey, J'onn," she said. "I've increased your telepathic abilities to a level ten," she said. "What do you say?"

"I need time to think," he said.

"Listen, I can return at any time," she said, "The General has built the powerfulest ships in the universe, and we can travel anywhere in time if need be."

JJ held on to Peppermint closely, and then said, "Old man, please get my people. We want the Zeta and her children on Earth too," he said. He looked at J'onn, and noticed the look of pain on his face, and he had an idea of what the Green Witch showed him.

"If Oa is strong in the future, I'll give you the Zeta. I'm only here because I wanted to stop the destruction of my planet."

"It's okay," The Green Witch said, "Oa is whole."

Back at the DEO…

Everybody except for Peppermint, JJ, and J'onn scattered immediately from the premises. Rachel and Amanda had already gone back to Cadmus. Ganthet and Nia flew back to Oa to retrieve her family, and he expected them back by December. GK went home. The Green Witch returned to her time, and JJ and Peppermint sat across from J'onn. It was a somber mood in the room, and the big, sage guy didn't want to say much. He brooded over the information he received, and scoffed at the young teen as he pried. JJ's girlfriend sat quiet next to him, but remained attentive to everything happening.

"You should have gone with the Green Witch," JJ said in a caring voice.

"Don't be presumptuous, Mister Johnson," he said with a grimace. "You haven't lived long enough to tell me what I should do."

"Perhaps," he said. "I'm no telepath, but I feel deeply." He paused for a moment, and in a brittle voice, he said, "You can't saved them. They can't see you as a green man, and they hate you as a black man."

"There has to be some good in them," J'onn said. "I believe they can change."

"Based on what?" He asked. "Look around, J'onn," JJ said. "Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson tried to change humankind in their day, but the power of the church squashed them, and slavery persisted. They found solace in their brutalizing of the African. Did you not feel the whips when you absconded from Mars to Earth, and you assumed the form of a slave? Did you not feel the brutality, the pain of the man with his hands and mind in bondage?"

"But they can change, JJ," he said.

'You can leave this world. You can be with your kind. You can start a family. You can forget about us," he said, "Luciferius already made the decision to eradicate them two thousand years ago. First, he killed the Grays of Doraxia. Upon his return, he will give the leaders of this world a chance to explain their actions, and when they fail to persuade, he will leave this world, but death will stay. And in the next one hundred years, more of them will die than be born. Within a millennium, they will be no more. You can love them, but you will only hurt for them as they die."

Peppermint leaned forward, and said, "JJ and I discussed this in depth when we learned of what happened on Doraxia. We studied the Grays and how they interacted with the Blues. The parallels between Doraxia and Earth are unnerving. With what we've surmised and with what the clone has told us, we're ninety-five percent sure, Luciferius will unleash the phage on this world. It will surgically remove one predetermined race from existence, so humankind can reach its apex, and take to the stars."

"There has to be something that can be done," Hank said. He looked stressed on the other side of the table. "If this General is so good…"

"It's not a matter of what's good or bad, but every species has an aberrant strain that keeps it from growing," he said, "Humankind can't move forward without the eradication of this rogue strain. Perhaps Kara and Clark can give them the spark needed to be better, but what did the Green Witch say?"

Hank placed his face in his hands, and said, "The General already set the phage in motion in twenty-ninety. They anticipate the eradication of whiteness out of the genepool in eight hundred and seventy-five years." He paused for a moment. "The General gave the disease to the European nations in a black box. He told them it would humanely kill Africans around the globe, and once that happened, he'd introduce the world to trans-warp technology."

"How quickly did they unleash the phage?" JJ asked with a straight face.

"Before the General ascended back to his ship," he said "If they hadn't pushed the button, the phage wouldn't have happened."

JJ felt saddened that the human race had a choice, but failed to empathize with their fellow man. "Peppermint and I must head home, Hank. Please reconsider about staying on Earth. You can't save them from themselves. Nobody can."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

JJ sat in his bedroom, Peppermint lay in the bed quietly, and the powerful medical device set on his dresser. He knew the device would help Vera Reese, but after he finished with it, he had to secure it away, and never tell anybody about it. The Green Witch discussed the importance of Vera to the future in detail, and quite frankly, it shocked him. He tapped on the floor, sat next to the bed, and tried to work out some details. He knew more about Vera's predicament than he should know, and so did Peppermint. Often, she had accidents with her urinary pouch, and he expected as much. When it came to Vera, he knew three things about her that bothered him: anger, distrust, and betrayal. His Momma gave Peppermint and him an acute understanding of children born with birth defects, and it made it easier to accept Vera's condition. She worked at the local hospital when he was a child, and Vera often made visits. So, Momma always had extra urinary pouches on hand, and when Vera was out and her momma couldn't afford to buy more, she had JJ drop a pouch off at her house in a small paper bag. He'd place it on the front porch, knock on the door, and then run away.

"I'm cursed," Vera said as they practiced on her music for the guitar contest. She had practiced for the last year on the music under JJ's tutelage, and he thought she would win the contest. She sat on a small bench in his bedroom, and strummed on an acoustic guitar, and performed a series of nice riffs. First, he demonstrated to her the chords and then helped her with the fingering. Peppermint clicked on the computerized metronome, and it helped Vera stay on beat.

"You're doing excellent," JJ said. 'Play it again."

He thought back to his childhood, about the second grade, when Vera's momma, Denise met Mister Washington, a school instructor at the school. He looked about ten-years-older than her, overweight, and tenebrous brown skin. He wore some black, rimmed glasses with a band that connected to the end of them. When JJ and Peppermint dropped by Denise's house, he always had negative things to say, and it frustrated JJ.

"Who's this little nigga?" He asked as JJ and Peppermint stood at the front door.

"That's not a nice word," JJ said with a grimace. He was approximately seven-years-old at the time.

"Uppity little nigga," he snapped. "Vera, your friends are here."

Oftentimes they walked over to Martin Luther King Jr's park. They played on the Merry-Go-Round and talked about the school day. Sometimes Vera cried about life in general, and she hated the fact that she had to wear a urinary pouch. Quickly, JJ learned to never give his opinion about ways to make life better with her bag or tell her she needed to learn to deal with it. He would be considered a full man. He'd be able to pleasure a woman. He'd be able to impregnate a woman. On the other hand, she wouldn't be able to do any of those things the way a woman should. She'd never be able to have conventional sex with a man. Whenever a man saw her nude, she'd have to explain her bag. A man couldn't enter her the way he entered a normal woman.

Beneath her brownish blond hair, set a beautiful face, but she saw it as a curse, as a dilemma, as something that made her life much harder.

"Just dress like Peppermint and me," JJ said. "People will think you're weird, and just leave you alone."

Often, JJ gave her his old Goth clothing or picked up stuff for her and Peppermint at thrift stores. They always wore weird stuff, and nobody said anything about it. When a new fashion hit the shelves, it didn't bother JJ and Peppermint, they continued to wear something gothic or anachronistic.

"Momma wants me to attend church every Sunday," she said with a grimace. "It upsets me when she has everybody lay hands on me like that's going to make my life better."

"She thinks that works?" He asked with a surprised look.

"It's unfortunate," Peppermint said. "I'd die if my parents did that to me."

Mister Washington didn't stay long, maybe two months, but JJ learned a lot of damage could happen in a short period of time. In those days, Denise didn't drink that much, and that was a good thing. Money was tight in their household, and the bill collectors called Vera's house relentlessly. Due to the constant attention Denise gave Vera, it caused a rift between Mister Washington and her. According to Vera, he called her god's little curse, and it sent Denise into a rage.

"What's wrong, Mrs. Reese?" JJ asked. He stood in front of her in his little khaki pants. He might have been seven at the time.

"Oh, life is all fun and games until you meet an asshole who refuses to wear protection," she said, "Don't be that asshole."

At the time, he didn't have a clue of what she meant, but her little brother annoyed him to death when he and Peppermint dropped by her house to give Vera music lessons. Now Mrs. Reese spent the majority of her time nestled in her hovel gulping down hard liquor and cursing at her god for her wasted life. It was a disgusting sight, and he hated dropping by her house, but now with the futuristic medical device, he believed it would change her life for the better.

Later...

Peppermint cooked a bowl of Ramen, JJ grabbed some kimchi out of the refrigerator, put a cup of it in a bowl, grabbed some chopsticks, and then they sat on the kitchen floor and ate. Ramen and Kimchi night happened at least three times a week. He found solace in her presence, in the way she chewed her food, and in the way she showed him affection. He grabbed a small plate, placed it on the counter, and put a glob of kimchi on it. It had a distinct smell to it, and they ate it so much that the smell was pleasant. To the novice nose, it probably smelled like crap. He'd grab a kimchi leaf, the first leaf, and fed it to his girlfriend with the chopsticks, and then she did the same. When he gave her the first bite, it meant that he'd give his life for hers, and by returning the gesture, it meant she'd do the same thing. They were in their gray sweats with their school's name printed on the front. Her wild, black hair pointed in every direction because of the feral, unadulterated lovemaking they engaged in for the last two hours. It was around eleven o'clock at night, and they had school in the morning, but he didn't care. He didn't think he could express his happiness of Peppermint's return in words, but he kept telling her that his life was lost without her. She slurped up a long noodle and made a long sucking sound that went on and on, and then when it stopped, he felt somewhat dismayed. It all seemed unreal, and he wanted to hear her slurp some more.

Due to the fact, Ganthet kept her unconscious the entire time, and she didn't realize she had been missing for nearly a week. In her mind, she had just left JJ a few hours earlier, so she became a bit overwhelmed by his longing for her. She worried because during the intense lovemaking, he cried loudly, and he suffered a great deal of loss.

"Are you going to be okay?" She asked as she caressed his head.

He let all of his pain out at once to her because she was the only one who could console him. For almost an hour, she found herself coddling him as he cried in her arms, and he apologized repeatedly for how he acted.

"It was too much to handle," he said with a grimace. "For nearly five days I thought our relationship was over. I can't put in words the pain I felt. Am I okay? You've returned to me, but I'm broken. I felt pains I never wanted to experience."

He didn't want her to see how the last week had broken him, had introduced him to a pain no man should ever endure, but at the same time, he wanted her to know why he didn't act the same. With just a thought, he had enough power to melt a tank, but couldn't protect his heart if Peppermint chose to reject him.

"I thought I just left you a few hours earlier," she said as they ate Ramen. Slowly, she ate a kimchi leaf, and then looked up at JJ. "I keep thinking tomorrow will be Saturday, and we should be eating popcorn, candy, and drinking soda pop while watching horror movies." She wiped tears from her eyes. "My heart hurts because I see the pain in your face."

"I went to your apartment, passed your father, into your room, and you told me you didn't want to be with me anymore," he said while crying slightly. "I just thought you were kidding. It took nearly thirty minutes for me to even comprehend that you were being serious. It cut me deeply, Peppermint."

"Yeah. That wasn't me though,' she said with a slight smile. "You do understand that?" She asked.

"Of course," he said, "Anyway, I have you back with me." He paused for a moment and shook his head in disbelief. "Your parents were elated that you had broken up with me." He looked down at the half-eaten bowl of kimchi and sniffled. "My mother told me that your father never had plans for us to marry, and he'd stand in our way."

She laughed for a moment.

"What?" JJ asked with a grimace.

"I was kidnapped because of what we'll do in the future," she said.

"Yeah. I don't plan on doing any of that," he said. "Oh! Everybody hates you except the preppy girls and Vera. And the only reason Vera doesn't hate you is that she was sick with the flu." He stood up quickly, grabbed the bowls, and tossed the uneaten food down the garbage disposal.

"What?" She asked. "I'm boxy. Everybody knows that."

"Well, the Zeta not only destroyed your rep, she cut me out of all your pictures, and set them on my doorstep." He walked over to his room, and came back with the sack of cut up pictures."

"What kind of evil cunt would do this?" She asked. She stuck her hands in the sack, pulled out the pictures, and then had a disgusting look on her face.

"That's a dirty word, Peppermint," he said. Taking the bag from her, he placed the pictures back in them.

"I don't care,' she said, "That dog cut up my pictures, honey. Why would you even believe such shenanigans? I just don't see how you believed I would do something like this. So, I don't care how long it takes, but I want my pictures back, JJ. If we have to scour every cloud, every hard drive, every DVD, and thumb drive, I want all my pictures back."

"I've been working on that already," he said. "As soon as I realized she wasn't you, I started finding the photos. We'll get it all back."

"So, I run over here early in the morning last Friday, we make love, we're almost late for school, and then I spend the whole day nestled up to you, but then I say I want to break up, and you think that's me?"

"It seemed real, Peppermint," he said. "She told me to call her Patty."

She burst out in laughter and disbelief. "Are you freaking kidding me? And that didn't clue you in that she was an imposter?" She hopped on top of JJ, and started tickling him, and then said, "Did she smell like oil too? Huh? Huh?"

"Quit, Peppermint," he said laughingly, "You're going to make me pee my pants!"

"You deserve it," she said as she kissed him slowly, and then he carried her to bed.

Friday Thirteenth...

The morning felt great as Peppermint lay next to him in the soft, queen sized bed. They continued to make love throughout the night, and he wanted her one more time just to make sure it wasn't all a dream. He wanted to stay in bed with her all day and enjoy her sweet scent all over his body. Quickly, he realized he could feel her love for him, but he couldn't feel anything with Nia because her brain didn't function the same as a human beings brain. But as he lay in bed, erect and ready, he felt her love. Her nude body lay quiet in his bed, not making a sound, and looking so innocent. It was five in the morning, and he decided a shower was appropriate, and she needed as much rest as possible because he had been out-of-hand with his need for her.

Once he finished with the warm shower, he stood nude as he watched Peppermint sleep quietly. He admired her, her tenacity and perseverance. He had so many thoughts racing through his mind, and his greatest pain was the thought of losing her. The hurt, caused by sources outside his control, couldn't be discounted without discounting his love for her. In some ways, he felt grateful for what Zeta did to him, for making him feel alive, for making his heart bleed for his only love, and for making him not afraid to demonstrate to all who knew him that he loved her more than anything. Gently, he traced her body with his right index finger, and she didn't flinch or tense up at all. He watched her body, a simple, slender frame of a body become more appetizing, more pleasing to his eyes, and as he turned her over violently but gentle, forceful but loving, and she opened her eyes, kissed him passionately, and he entered her with thrust and emotion, and she let him have her in the way he desired. His adrenaline was overclocked, and his erection pulsated. The love looked like a tussle of two gods fighting for dominance, and she gripped his muscles as he pounded her without restraint. He sat on his knees, and held her up with his erect penis, and controlled her every rise and fall on his hard manhood until she collapsed in his arms. The bed rocked back and forth, and he knew his feral, unrestrained lovemaking caused the entire complex to take note. Her body convulsed wildly in his arms, but he didn't stop pulling and pushing, and she screamed for mercy. He lay her down on the bed, and her vulva continued pulsating around his erect penis, and then he released her and fell limp on her svelte frame.

"Can with just lay like this for a moment?" He asked gently.

She wiped the sweat from his forehead, and then said, "Of course. I want you to know we're family. You have no reason to be in pain because we're together."

Little Africa High School…

JJ wore his black steel toe biker boots, black leather pants, black shirt, black trench coat, and a wig that fit tightly to his head with black dreads. He stood in the entrance of the school before his first-period class, and the sun rose behind him. He wore his peppermint colored guitar with Peppermint's face on it and walked to the middle of the hallway, and the students made a circle around him. He began to strum the strings softly, and the crowd rocked gently to the sound of the music. Peppermint walked around the corner, microphone in hand, and dressed in all black, face powdered white, and black lipstick. When she put the microphone to his mouth as he strummed the guitar strings, he sang, "I hurt myself today to see if I still feel." The crowd rocked with him. Peppermint faced him from the side as she held the microphone to his face.

"That's Peppermint," Cindy French said. "You're so boxy, JJ."

"I wear this crown of shit," he sang, and the crowd cheered. The beat was slow, but the melody was strong, and all the kids understood the song. He began to strum louder and louder like the guitar was climaxing. The song came off as a mad tale of pain and the loss that all humans go through if they live long enough. He swayed back and forth, and Peppermint rocked with him. In full voice, he sang, "You can have it all." Everybody danced around in the hallway, and then JJ changed it up as he rocked back and forth in the hallway. "Give it up for Nine Inch Nails, dogs and doggets."

JJ and Peppermint walked into English class, and sat in their special place on the far side of the room, on the floor, and like always, he pulled out a peppermint ball, plucked it into her mouth, and then pulled out his books. It was the same ritual they had done a million times, and everything felt normal until the preps entered.

"So, you not with us?" Sherry Tanner asked.

"I'm too boxy for your bull," she said, "I promise you that person you were with wasn't me."

"Thank gawd," Cindy French said, "I told JJ it wasn't you. I see your glow, girl."

"What's she talking about?" Peppermint asked him.

"She sees metas," he said, "Nia didn't have a glow like us."

"Peppermint, I'm glad you're back with your man," Sherry Tanner said with a smile. "I feel the balance is back in the universe."

"Really?" JJ asked.

"Yes really," she said.

The Friday 13th Dance…

There were plenty of decorations; they were all over the wall, and Jason stood at the entrance of the building with his hockey mask and machete. There was a multitude of different costumes, most of them homemade monstrosities, but the students put time and attention into them all. JJ held Peppermint close to his side, a beautiful beauty with long orange hair, green skin, and a black helmet. She dressed up as the Green Witch, and he loved it on her. It didn't really matter because he loved her regardless of what she wore. He wore his rockers uniform, and they danced in the middle of the room in a slow, methodical manner, even though the music had a faster beat. They were notorious for not dancing to the beat until somebody challenged them to a dance-off. When people asked him why they danced offbeat to the music, he'd often say, "I'm dancing to the rhythm of my Peppermint's heart."

"Do you see Vera?" JJ asked Peppermint.

She looked around the crowded room and then said, "No. I hope she made it."

He twirled his girlfriend around in circles, and then he held her close to him. The entire student body filled the auditorium, and then Vera Reese meandered her way on to the dance floor, and JJ, Peppermint, and Vera danced in the middle of the floor. She had on one of Peppermint's old, Gothic dresses, black and svelte. He looked down at her midsection and didn't see the outline of her pouch.

"We need to talk, Vera," JJ said.

"What's the deal?" She asked. as they walked into the hallway.

His girlfriend leaned against the wall, and JJ was next to her, and then had said, "You're a special person."

She laughed. "You're just saying that."

"Listen," Peppermint said.

"There's a being with immense powers in our future, and he called you Momma."

"Now I know you're crazy," she said.

"This does sound crazy," he said. "But he's powerful. His wife traveled through time and dropped off a very powerful medical device. She told me to use this device on you, and it will make you whole."

"JJ, you've done great things for me, but nothing can make me whole," she said.

"He's not lying, Vera," Peppermint said with a grimace. "We're coming over Sunday around two o'clock with the device."

"Don't let your knucklehead brother bother us when we're doing this," he said.

"So, you want me to believe I have a future son that can time travel?" She asked.

"Have I ever let you down?" He asked.

"No. But…"

"Then trust us," Peppermint said. "That's all we ask."

"Just make sure you wipe the floor with Tommy and them tomorrow at the Guitar contest."


	6. Chapter 6

Book 2

The Day The Hate Ruled

Prologue

Internet Radio:

This is Cindy X out of Little Africa's South Side. I want to give a shout out to my boxy girls in National City Prime: Stay boxy, doggets. Let me give a big boxy shout out to my non-swirling, boxy sisters at Little Africa High. I love you, boxy ladies. Now, I want everybody to take an opportunity to get you some libations, something to eat, or whatever it takes to get your mind right. Tonight's subject matter has to do with Black Men Who Blame Black Women Because They Date Interracially. So, I'm sitting in the cafeteria at National City High during the Concert Band tryouts, and I hear this silly brother named Shonny who's dating this oversized, unboxy white girl say, "Sisters are ignorant, loud, and uptight, and that's the reason I date white girls."

So, I asked this uncouth fool, "How many sisters have you've dated?" You know what this ignorant bastard said to me. "One!" Can you believe that? This coon, and I think he has leukemia or something, find the widest brush, and paints all sisters the same way off one bad experience. He then turned around, and said, "You all stink." I thought I was talking to a member of the Ku Klux Klan, and this Negro looks like a blob of tar. He'll probably be dead in a week.

Now, I know one brother, a boxy brother whose girlfriend is Asian, and I'm not going to mention his name, but he's been with the same Asian girl since birth. He's not a hopper. He's not a butterfly. This brother doesn't have a rubberneck or a wandering eye. He gives no excuse for loving his Asian girlfriend, and won't let anybody talk bad about her. She's the same for him. If somebody looks at him wrong, she's ready to tussle. But you know what makes this brother exceptional, he doesn't say bad things about black women.

I don't care about black men swirling, but keep us black women out your damn mouth. Don't say anything about us because you choose to sleep white. But let's be honest, don't we have to ask ourselves what kind of monsters are these white women who let these black men get away with talking badly about black women? What if these black men have black daughters with these white women? People can talk about biracial this or biracial that all day, but society sees these children as black. How is a white woman going to stand for her black husband or boyfriend to talk badly about black women when he's going to have a black daughter?

We need a code of conduct in our community. For example, there's an old ass Asian cop making more Blasian babies than all the black soldiers did in Vietnam. How is this fool still alive? If the justice system isn't stopping this cop, then why aren't you black people? Why are you allowing this Asian cop to molest your women black men? If we had a code of conduct, a line that we do not cross as black people, we wouldn't have all this coonery. It's time to handle these coons in our community. I'm not saying you should randomly attack somebody because they date interracially, but if these fools say something negative about black people to these whites or Asians or whatever, you need to handle that business. They should not walk freely in our community after they denigrated you to another community.

End of Internet Radio

DEO…

JJ sat in a dark room with a computer terminal, some files on his team, and studied them closely. J'onn gave him an office on the fifth floor to study the fight between his team and Ganthet, and find the weaknesses in their performance. JJ knew when he discussed things with his team and talked nonstop, almost without hesitation, they hated it. It probably had more to do with his age than anything else, but Rachel trained him to be a leader, and in addition to his training, he craved perfection. But when he spoke, he made sure he spoke from a position of facts, and if he didn't have the facts, then he made an educated guess. Nia worked with him, and she looked like a young Eartha Kitt. It was only a mask, a ruse, for she was a Zeta Unit, a sophisticated, sentient robot created by Luciferous, the Destroyer. Well, her race came from the hands and mind of Luciferous, and each unit usually gave birth to two progeny in their lifetime. They engaged in coitus, but the act was strictly for pleasure, and each unit gave birth in their twenty-second and twenty-fifth year of life.

"Show me James' video of the fight with Ganthet again?" He asked. Nia punched in a few commands into the computer, so JJ could view the video for the fiftieth time. He sat on the edge of his seat and watched the sapphire god strike Olsen in the face. Then when Ganthet shot James with a laser, it happened almost without a thought; it was natural, fast, and almost unstoppable.

"What are you trying to ascertain from this segment?" She asked frustratingly. "You know his delayed response has to do with inadequate sleep."

"He toyed with us, Nia," he said with a grimace. "His mind and body worked in harmony to deliver a precise blow to Olsen." He looked closer at the screen and then said, "But when the Green Witch came on the scene, he fell in line. It's like he didn't want to tangle with her."

"It's the training," she said. "I believe the helmet she wore gave her telepathic abilities. Nobody messes with the Yellow Lanterns without backup. In this time, Sinestro leads the Yellow Lanterns, and his ring is subpar to the ring Luciferous holds." She paused for a moment, and asked, "What was in the suitcase she gave you?"

"Some tech," he said. "It's confidential. It's for Vera Reese."

Peppermint walked into the room in her black, utilitarian dress, and looked closely at the screen. "How do we fight against the ring? Is there a way to harness the power of the ring?"

"With a ring," Nia said. "Don't get me wrong, you can defeat the ring with a bolt of lightning, but a being as powerful as Ganthet is dangerous all by himself."

"The Green Witch mentioned I hadn't reached my apex," he said with a grimace. "J'onn, Rachel, and Supergirl have been working with me. I feel like I'm at my apex now."

"That's your mind playing tricks on you," Nia said. "Never underestimate a Guardian.'

Alex stepped into the room, huffy and mumbling under her breath. Immediately, JJ lost concentration in what he had to do, and it wasn't because of her complaints, but it had to do with what he knew about her lover. James and Maggie were so sloppy in how they behaved that she had to sense something, and it bothered him because their actions created distrust within the ranks. Because he felt like their business wasn't his business, he didn't want to expose the improper relationship between Maggie and James, but he also needed counseling from people who knew more about the issue than him.

"Alex, has J'onn gone over my notes about the battle with Ganthet with you?" JJ asked with a straight face. He tried to keep his countenance normal, and not give any indication that he knew something about her girlfriend.

"I did," she said with a grimace. "What gives you the right to critique Kara?" She asked in a bitter tone. Peppermint turned and faced her immediately.

"If Hank didn't think we were assets, we wouldn't be here, Alex," Peppermint said. "Make no mistake that Ganthet and his team took Superman and Supergirl out within seconds."

"You humans have to understand the Kryptonians are an old race," Nia said calmly. "Only recently has the military elite made weapons that can hurt Supergirl and the other Kryptonians. Other worlds, on the other hand, have had weapons and other means of dealing with Kryptonians under a yellow sun."

"I know you don't like me," JJ said. "I pretty much don't like you either, but I love my planet. Kara and Clark can be hurt with the right tools, Alex. We must design suits and equipment to counteract future threats to our greatest assets."

"I don't trust you," she said, "You're Cadmus."

"And I will be Cadmus tomorrow," he said, "But I'm not Lillian Luther's Soldier if that's what you're thinking. Amanda Waller controls Cadmus, and I work directly for Rachel Ballard."

J'onn's Office…

JJ paced in front of J'onn's desk, stressed and angry over the situation between Maggie and James. For a short time, he marched back and forth without saying a word to his mentor. He placed his left hand on the chair directly in front of J'onn's desk and tried to find the words needed for the situation.

"Mister Johnson, did you come in here to wear a hole in my carpet?" J'onn asked impatiently.

"I'm only contracted to you for a short time," JJ said, "But I don't want to overstep boundaries."

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"All the people I'm analyzing is much older than I, except for my Peppermint, and there's an element that I'm not prepared to confront."

"What's that?" He asked. "You seem to be a well-rounded commander in the field."

"I know strategy," he said, "But there's an infidelity happening that could tear everything apart." He paused for a moment. "I've known about Maggie and James for four months now," he said with a grimace. "When Alex finds out, it will crush her."

"Who else knows about this?" He asked.

"Supergirl and Peppermint," he said. "They've known just as long as I have."

"They're adults," J'onn said.

"Yes," he said. "I thought that would be your response." He turned towards the door, and then said, "It's Friday. It's late, and Peppermint and I are heading back to Little Africa." He didn't have any intention of going back home immediately because of Alex. He gave a lot of thought about informing her of Maggie's infidelity.

JJ stood outside of the DEO with Peppermint, and she looked back at Alex walking out the building, and then flew up in the air, and towards Little Africa. He admired her grace as she sped through the beautiful night sky. Cautiously, he stared at Alex as she came out the building with her purse in her hands, and she noticed his gaze.

"What?" She asked with bitterness.

He looked at her with a calm face, relaxed demeanor, and at the end of the day, he didn't want to hurt her, but he felt he had no choice. On several occasions, he told Maggie and James to disengage from their clandestine relationship because of the possibility of causing a chasm within the team, but they failed to react. In addition, Supergirl chose not to involve herself in the love triangle, but JJ couldn't tolerate it any longer.

"Where's Maggie?" He asked with an inviting smile. Walking over to her, he saw her countenance change, and she became somewhat defensive in her posture. She didn't take a fighting stance, but he sensed her guard was up.

"Why do you want to know?" She said with a grimace. "Are you trying to hit on me?"

With a serious look on his face, he said, "I love my Peppermint so much that I wouldn't let the thought of hitting on you cross my mind."

"Then why are you out here waiting for me like this?" She said. "I'm uncomfortable."

"We've had words," he said, "Hurtful words over the last several months." He paused for a moment and walked up to her. "You think of me as a kid, and I think of you as mean person. At the same time, I consider you a valuable player."

"Okay," she said.

"I want you to fly with me," he said. "It'll be a short trip."

"I'm not going anywhere with you," she said.

Suddenly, his electromagnetic field engulfed her, and she wasn't able to escape it. She beat her fist on the field and screamed for him to let her go, but he had to do what he had to do.

"Calm the hell down, Alex, and act like you have some sense. I need to show you something."

"Let me go, JJ?" She asked with a grimace.

"I'm doing this for your own good," he said. "Maybe you'll appreciate me for this, but I doubt it."

He took flight with her directly under him, through the night sky, and over to James' apartment, "We're cloaked now, and nobody can see us." He flew overhead, hovered, and peered down to the hot tub where Maggie straddled James. Alex continued to struggle, but JJ told her to look. "Look at'em, Alex!" Maggie hopped up and down on his lap while the water splashed around them, and he could feel the anger rising in Alex.

She focused her eyes and began to struggle more. She saw James and Maggie hop out of the tub, go into the apartment, and leave the sliding door opened. Gently, JJ and Maggie landed on the balcony, and when they peered into the room, Maggie was on top of James rocking him hard and panting loudly. When JJ saw that Alex was about to scream, he flew up in the air with her and took her across the way to her apartment. When he let her down on the ground, she tried to swing on him, but he ducked.

"You did that just to be cruel!" She exclaimed. He didn't say anything for a moment because he wanted her to calm down before he tried to discuss to her about the reason why he showed her. The pain on her face was real, showing in the way she struggled to hold her composer. He tried to give her a tittle of comfort, but she pushed him away, and said, "You knew about this?" She paced back and forth, and then fell to the ground in tears. "How could she do this?"

JJ grimaced. He sat on the ground next to her, pulled out his phone, and then text Peppermint. He talked to Alex calmly while he waited for his girlfriend, and said, "I'm sorry that I had to do things this way." He paused for a moment, and then said, "I hate the betrayal of trust, but Maggie's broken. I wish you could have found somebody to build a lasting relationship within this cruel world."

"How do you know she's broken?" She asked while sniffling. "Are you a mind reader?"

"Rachel read her mind," he said calmly. "And told me what she saw."

She shook her head in disbelief, and then he walked her up to her apartment, and she tried to keep him from entering her abode, but he ignored her pushback and kept moving forward. Throwing her purse on the counter, she grabbed her cellphone, and JJ took it from her with his powers, and then said, "You need to handle this tactfully and intelligently."

"But I don't want to be tactful," she snapped.

"You put your trust in an untrustworthy person," he said calmly. "It was all new to you. You were enamored." He sat down on her couch, and said, "It's so important to discuss boundaries when involved in a serious relationship."

"Not everybody has a Peppermint," she said with a grimace.

"I won't lie," he said with a sad face. "If Peppermint told me she no longer wanted to be my betrothed, it would be devastating to my heart and mind." He smiled for a moment. "I've heard love weakens some people." He smiled deeply, and then said, "I find solace in knowing I share my heart with Peppermint. I find beauty in never being heart-whole."

JJ heard a swishing sound, and he knew it was Peppermint. She knocked on Alex's door, and JJ let her into the apartment. When Peppermint and JJ sat next to each other on Alex's couch, She lay in the middle of the floor crying.

"You have to break it off with her," JJ said calmly. "I asked them four months ago to stop this nonsense before they hurt you, but they wouldn't listen."

"You've known for four months?" She asked.

"Yes," Peppermint said. "We wanted them to stop without us intervening."

"Kara told them to stop too, and the only reason we didn't say anything was to spare your feelings."

"But you didn't seem to hesitate in showing me their affair in live action?" She asked.

"Because they became emboldened with their madness," Peppermint said, "We wanted you to have the upper hand, and time to think clearly and calmly about how to end it."

"She's exactly right," Jimmy said. "We know there are threats beyond our world, Alex. We have to have contingencies in place for beings stronger than the Kryptonians." He paused for a moment and lay beside her on the floor. "Rachel made some of us gods because we'll be fighting gods."

"Why Earth?" She asked.

"Because in twenty-something years, a being of immense power will be born in our world," he said, "His wife traveled through time, and saved you, Kara, Peppermint, and all of us from death."

Reverend Tater's Baptist Church…

Tommy Tater-a sixteen-year-old black kid-stayed in the loft connected to the church in little Africa, and he had his Caucasian girlfriend, Becky, half dressed in his bed. They engaged in coitus throughout the night and fell asleep about four in the morning. He lay back on the bed, looked at the far wall, and it was a picture of a golden-haired Jesus looking back at him.

"So, are you competing in the Guitar Wars tonight?" Becky asked as she lay smiling.

"I don't know," he said with a look of doubt on his face. "JJ won it for the last two years, and will probably win it this year too."

"He told me he wasn't performing," she said. "He said he's spending all his time with Peppermint."

Concerned, he looked over at his girlfriend, and said, "Ricky and Berry want to name the band Junk Yard Rebels, and it won't bode well with my family because they want the Rebel flag on display."

"That wouldn't work out well for me either," she said. "It goes against everything I believe in."

"I told Ricky to drop the rebel nonsense, but he thinks it'll work," he said.

"You drive to National City, but you live in Little Africa," she said, "We're from Little Africa, and we don't play that rebel nonsense here. I can go with the Junkyard Demons, but this rebel nonsense is going to get you killed."

"It just means maverick," he said, "One who breaks the rules, and stuff."

"Yeah. It means oppression to people who look like you," she said angrily. She hopped out of bed, threw on her pants, shoes, and then said, "I'm against this rebel flag nonsense. Go with Junkyard Demons, and be done with it. Now, let's go get some breakfast."

When Tommy stood up off the bed, he felt an intense pain in his cranium. Stumbling, he fell to the ground grabbing his throbbing head, and his girlfriend tried to hold on to him, but he began to convulse on the ground wildly. He struggled on the floor for almost two minutes, and then when Becky grabbed her cellphone to call for help, he said, "It's okay."

Chapter Six

Tommy and Becky sat in Mickey Mac's Restaurant with a group of other young people and enjoyed a nice breakfast of fried eggs, bacon, and pancakes. The pain he felt earlier was fresh on his mind, and he didn't know what to make of it. He wondered if it had something to do with the accident that occurred months earlier. He felt a tingling in his hands all the time since the radioactive wave happened, but his family doctor gave him a good assessment.

A young brownish blond haired girl named Vera Reese walked into the eatery and ordered a small burger and fries. When Tommy heard the people in the back of the restaurant call her a nasty girl, she turned to look at them, and then stepped outside the front door, and waited until her food was ready.

"Everybody treats Vera like she has a disease," Becky said. "It's sad."

He knew the majority of people in the restaurant because they lived in the same area, but he hadn't seen them too much because he went to high school at National City High. Tommy noticed-almost immediately-that the teens to the rear of the restaurant kept pointing at them, and he couldn't help but ask them if they had a problem.

"Something wrong?" Tommy asked in a strong, deep voice. He looked over at the guy with a beard and a mustache, but he was no older than sixteen. "You've run Vera out the restaurant, and now you're bullying us."

One of the young men sucked his teeth, and said, "Nothing, dog. I think you disrespect yourself hanging out with that white girl. You're one of the original Hebrews. What's wrong with you fucking with those devils?"

"Oh, it's like that?" He asked. "Mind your business." He couldn't believe the young man had the nerve to say something to him, and then Tommy said, "You need to find Jesus."

"Don't throw your white god at me, man," the young teen said, "Maybe if you found yourself a black god, you'll find yourself a black woman instead of that Curse Seed of Canaan."

"Let's go, Tommy," Becky said with a scowl on her face.

"Not yet," he said as he looked back at the miscreants in the rear of the restaurant. "Let's wait for Vera." When she walked back into the eatery, grabbed her meal, and then she walked out of the restaurant.

Immediately after that, the couple stood up, and as they walked out the restaurant, one of the men spoke up.

"She orders him around like a dog," one of the guys said loudly. "You going to let that white devil tell you what to do?"

"Now that's enough," Mickey said. 'Y'all ain't going to be running off my customers like that. This is a respectable place. Tired of y'all talking that Black Israelite bullshit!"

"Thank you, Mickey," Tommy said as he left the facility. Walking down the street, thinking, and holding hands with Becky, he said, "I'm sorry you had to endure that. I don't know what's going on with all the hate lately." He shook his head in disbelief, and then said, "All I can do is pray for them."

"About that," she said, "Is prayer doing anything for Little Africa?" She walked backward for a moment, and asked, "There's money in religion, in keeping people's hopes up, but like JJ said, 'Religion ain't shit without the sheep.'"

"He didn't say it like that," Tommy said, "He said, 'In an educated society, religion will die quickly, and the wolves will have to find more sophisticated ways to prey on the sheep. If they don't change their approach, we'll be a world without wolves, and that's the world where I'd find solace. Unfortunately, the wolves seem safe here.'" He laughed a little, and said, "That's when Momma kicked him out the house and told him his soul was blacker than the night sky."

"Did he turn his back on God when his father died?" Becky asked.

"His father was agnostic, and read 'The Age of Reason' by Thomas Paine to him," he said, "I try to believe, but I often have my doubts. I struggle," he said. "I wonder if God frowns on what we do sexually."

"He's against anything enjoyable," she said smiling. He pulled his Pearl guitar from underneath his bed and grabbed the pick. When he strummed a few chords, she asked, "So, you going to put my picture on it like JJ did with Peppermint?"

"He was made that way," he said, "All his guitars are made with images of her. He's been doing that since grade school."

"Yeah," she said with a smile. "I guess I'm not getting my picture on your guitar."

"Maybe on my next one," he said with a smile. Suddenly, his head throbbed repeatedly, and he clinched the arm of his guitar. A pink glow encompassed his body, and he began to writhe in pain. He tried to control his convulsions, and when he stood up with the guitar, he accidentally strummed a chord, and an energy blast punched a large hole in the wall.

"Oh my gawd," Becky said. "What's happening?"

"Did I do that?" He asked. Quickly, he analyzed the damage, and then said, "Momma's going to kill me."

"This means you're meta," she said. "You best keep it quiet because I heard the government is talking about making a registry."

Guitar Wars…

Tommy saw JJ and Peppermint walk into the Civic Center holding hands, wearing their Steampunk clothing, and acting boxy. He wore his gold top hat with goggles, baggy pants, and some leather boots with straps. On the other hand, Peppermint wore her white Steampunk gear with a white top hat with peppermints all over it, a white monocle, and a giant white, peppermint clock on her chest. He didn't see them with guitars, and he felt like he finally had a chance to win the trophy for once.

When Becky and Tommy walked into the foyer, he realized quickly how mistaken he was about JJ. He not only had one guitar, but three, and they all had Peppermint's face on them. Distraught, he walked up to him, and said, "I thought you weren't competing."

"I'm not," he said smilingly. "Black Mold is the entertainment. So, good luck to you." He picked up all his equipment with the help of his girlfriend and marched towards the stage.

"You look desperate," Becky said. "You nearly broke down in tears."

"Ugh. I want this so badly," he said, "You don't even know."

A crowd of people flocked into the auditorium, and Tommy made his way to the stage. The director came in while Tommy and the other contestants tuned their equipment. Becky came backstage, and she looked serious.

"Those damn Hebrews are outside causing all kinds of trouble," she said, "Just being idiots."

Black Mold was on the stage, and JJ sang a hard rock song where he had long guitar riffs like he was playing to win the contest. He had his hat tilted to one side, and Peppermint danced around in front him. He had the entire auditorium in an uproar, and when Tommy peeked through the closed curtain, the entire place danced like they were at a real, rock concert. Suddenly, and out of nowhere, Peppermint pulled on her suit, and it flew off her body, and she was dressed in a sexy, white skirt, and then she took off her hat, and two, long ponytails fell down past her shoulders. She grabbed the microphone, and the band played an updated version of Madonna's, "Like a Virgin." She had the entire crowd rushing the stage, and screaming for her. The way she wore the dress, it accentuated her bosom, and she looked much larger than usual.

"Oh my gawd," Johnny Chuck said as he stood towering over Tommy. He was a tall white kid about seventeen with a full, reddish beard, and a multicolored, woven hat. "JJ is showing us up again, and he's not even competing."

"He's setting the bar, y'all," Tommy said. "Possibly too high."

"That's the goal right there," Johnny Chuck said. He laughed. "I'm torn. I'm glad JJ's not competing. I'm sad JJ's not competing."

"I understand," a female's voice came from the back. When Tommy looked over at her, he noticed it was Vera Reese, and she had JJ's old guitar, the one that had Peppermint's baby picture on it. Her hair was in a French braid, and it traveled past her shoulders. She had on her thick, black monocle with a black beret. She wore some Steampunk, sapphire clothing, black glasses, and black lipstick. Her white shirt was long sleeved and tucked into her puffy, blue corset. She had on thick, black boots, and her pants legs were tucked into them.

"What are you doing with that?" He asked. Walking around her, he thought her outfit was topnotch.

"It's a long story," she said. "I'm taking JJ's place."

"Seriously?" Tommy asked. "Did he dress you too?"

"Pretty much. He told me to tell Y'all he wasn't letting none of Y'all just take his title," she said, "He's been planning this for the last year."

Black Mold walked behind the stage, and Johnny immediately asked JJ, "Did you train her?"

"Hell yeah," he said smiling. "She's coming for the trophy. I wasn't about to let your grubby hands get it."

"I'm your best bud," Tommy said. "You could have told me your plans."

"I know right?" JJ said, "I'm an evil shit like that you know?"

"I do now," he said, "I do now."

Peppermint laughed. "Oh! Nate, they're calling you." She walked past Tommy, and said, "It's going to fun watching y'all sweat."

Nathan was a heavyset, Indian kid with long, scraggly hair. His rough skin was conspicuous, and the first, noticeable thing about him. He wore black-rimmed glasses, a fedora, and a trench coat with black boots. As he walked on to the stage, he popped his knuckles on both hands.

JJ said, "Tear it up, Nate."

When he started playing his riffs, he messed up on the third and fourth one, and everybody in the rear cringed. They had practiced so much on the riffs that they knew exactly when somebody missed a note. But when he went into a nice song, it had a soft rhythm that reached the soul. It almost sounded like a Prince melody, but saucier. It was bold and lively, and then he wove in some Indian funk, and the crowd roared. It really showed his range.

JJ and Peppermint sat against the banister on the other side of the room, and they looked like they had fallen asleep. When Nathan quit playing, JJ said, "Four major mistakes, but an energetic ending that caused my heart to race. The way he went into the Bollywood rift took it to a whole other level."

"Right on! Right on!" Peppermint exclaimed.

"Great! You're going to critique us?" Johnny Chuck said.

"Y'all are all crybabies," Peppermint said. "Jealous that Vera's going to wipe the floor with you."

"We'll see about that," Johnny Chuck said as he went on stage.

"There's no way I can place with that ate up performance," Nate said.

"You had some mistakes, but you scored some serious points with the Bollywood funk," JJ said. "Listen to Johnny howl?"

"His sound is unique," Peppermint said. "He's been holding back the good stuff in practice."

"Hear that?" Tommy said, 'He missed a note."

"Yeah," JJ said, "It was almost perfect though."

Tommy walked out onto the stage, and he didn't realize so many people sat in the audience. Immediately, he flowed right into his riffs, and went through them we ease, and then he started playing a rock song with a strong guitar lead. He played like a professional guitar player, and then toward the end of the song, he missed a note, and the entire crowd gasped. By the time he finished with his song, he knew it would be impossible to stay in contention for the top spot.

After eight more contestants, Vera walked onto the stage, and Tommy listened to her rifts, and they were perfect. She sounded like JJ and the way he played. When she flowed into her song, she made it her own, and she had the entire crowd screaming for more.

After two hours of performances, Vera walked away with the first place trophy, and Johnny Chuck complained.

"You're really that shallow?" Peppermint asked Johnny as they carried out their band equipment.

"Not really," he said, "Third place isn't bad, but there's next year."

"Whatever," JJ said, "Vera will beat all y'all maple syrup eaten' bastards any year."

"Yes! I like my maple syrup," Nate said.

"So, Peppermint and I are heading over to Fluffy Muffins. Y'all coming."

"I can't," Vera said. "Broke."

"How did you pay for your entry into the concert?" Tommy asked.

"JJ," she said, "He entered me into the concert, bought the duds, and let me borrow the guitar. I can't afford all this."

"Becky and I will be by there," Tommy said.

"Me too," Nate said.

"Count me in," Johnny Chuck said.

"Vera, I'll pay for you," Tommy said.

"Are you sure?" She asked.

"I got you," He said with a smile.

Tommy, Becky, Nate, Vera, and Johnny walked down the street on the west side of Little Africa, past the J. Marion Sims' bust, and over to the Fluffy Muffin's Waffle House, and JJ and Peppermint went to put up their equipment. Tommy immediately noticed Nate's interest in Vera, and he kind of laughed. Most of the time Nate shied away from the girls.

Beck took off her nice clothes and donned some sweats and an old football t-shirt before they left the auditorium. She liked to be relaxed after a good music session. She then asked, "Okay. So, what do y'all think about a salute to the King of Rock and Roll for Halloween?"

"JJ put you up to this, didn't he?" Johnny asked.

"A salute to Chuck?" Vera asked. "I'm for it."

"Man! I miss you guys," Tommy said with a smile. "I'm over at that preppy school in National City, and they're no fun at all."

"Only JJ could get away with singing, 'My Ding-A-Ling in the middle of the school's hallway, and nobody bats an eye," Johnny said. "He had the teachers and everybody singing."

"I was there for that one," Tommy said.

"It was an awesome day," Vera said. "

"So, you guys are planning on a Steampunk horror theme with Chuck Berry's music for the Halloween dance?" Tommy asked.

"I have several remixes of his more popular songs," Nate said. "I think we can spice it up with some Fat Dominoes and other fifty sounds."

When the gang walked up to the Fluffy Muffin's, JJ and Peppermint had already pushed some tables together and sat waiting for them. Tommy noticed the twenty-four-hour pharmacy across the street from the restaurant, and it had a large sign that read, "Twenty Four Hour Pharmacy."

"How did Y'all beat us?" Nate asked.

"We ran," Peppermint said. "So, did Becky tell you the theme for the Halloween dance?"

"Yeah," Johnny said.

"So that means we have to push this hard and heavy come Monday," JJ said. "We have to make like it's the hottest idea since sliced bread."

Vera said, "Sheesh," and Tommy almost didn't notice it, but JJ did.

"Are you good?" He asked with a serious look.

"No," she said. "Momma's broke and I'm completely out." Her voice quivered.

Peppermint walked Vera to the restroom, and JJ darted across the street and told them he'd be right back.

"Where's he going?" Tommy asked.

"Looks like the pharmacy," Becky said. It didn't take him long, maybe five minutes, and he knocked on the restroom door and handed Vera a box.

"Okay, Peppermint and Vera are having the platters," he said. "So, let's order!"

"What happened?" Tommy asked.

"It's personal," he said. "Don't ask about it. Don't pry."

At that point, Tommy realized that her health hadn't really improved from when they were kids. He had always known her to be sickly, and have to leave school for months at a time because of medical issues. JJ and Peppermint always included her in their activities when she was well enough. He was always the hero, even when people didn't ask him to be. Maybe that was his number one fault in life. When the other students shunned her, JJ and Peppermint remained her friend, and always treated her with the utmost respect.

JJ, Peppermint, and Vera left first because her Momma began to worry, and she was feeble and incapable of working. Next, Johnny and Nate left, and then Tommy and Becky stayed for a while and talking about life. He still had on his costume, but he removed his headwear.

"You're jealous of JJ aren't you?" Becky asked with a serious look on her face.

"What makes you asked that?" He asked. "I do wish I had the ability to be an egalitarian like him. Yes. Whatever he has is innate to him, and he gives without expecting anything in return." He paused for a moment, and then said, "It's not human. I've spent my entire life being taught we're better than the people who sit in the congregation of the church. JJ looks at humankind as equal."

"He spent over three hundred dollars on Vera's uniform. The guitar cost more than eight hundred dollars," she said, "I couldn't do it."

"He buys all of Peppermint's clothing," he said, "All of it."

"Where's he getting the money?" She asked.

"He has two stupid apps that make him money," he said. "Black Mold also brings in money when they play at different venues."

Tommy and Becky left out of the eatery. He wore his guitar on his back and held hands with her as they walked down the road. It was rather late, a little past one in the morning, and a bit nippy outside. They had to walk past the roughest area of Little Africa, an area where the Black Israelites reside, and he had up his guard. It was only a ten-minute walk across the area, and when he looked at his watch, they had been the area for eight minutes. But when they were about two blocks from the church, six heavy set black guys attacked them. They moved so fast on them that he didn't have a chance to prepare. He felt a heavy hand on the right side of his face, back, and midsection. He fell to the ground, and writhe in pain. He moaned on the ground and felt repeated kicks to his side, He became so angry that a sudden burst of energy came out of his body. It caused him to leap to his feet, and then he took his guitar off his back.

He looked around for a moment. Angered. Three guys had Becky on the ground, tearing off her clothes, and raping her. She screamed so loud, but the guy on top of her covered her mouth. "Get off her," he screamed.

Strumming the guitar, it made a deep sound. He then started playing a hardcore rock song, and the guys raping his girlfriend said, "I'm fucking his girl, and he's playing my theme song." They all laughed. He then hit a guitar riff, and Beck screamed.

"Help me!" She exclaimed.

Suddenly, a blast of melodious energy hit the guys. He was still in the riff, and the music flowed in such a way that he felt it throughout his entire body. He continued to strum the strings, and then another blast tore their bodies into pieces.

"May you burn in hell," he screamed. "And tell Satan my music sent you." When the other guys saw what happened, they tried to run. They tripped over each other and appeared to be incapable of standing out of fear. Tommy looked at them with reddish, devilish eyes, and said, "You can't run from my melody." He hit a high pitch chord, and a fiery energy, a melodious energy, a destructive energy encompassed their bodies. It ripped them into pieces, and not one trace of them existed. There was one guy left, and he stood off in the distance trembling in fear.

"Who are you, man?" He asked.

He looked down at his guitar for a moment, and then said, "Call me Mister Melody."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Next Day: DEO Noon…

"J'onn!" JJ exclaimed. Nia sat next to him while he argued with the boss of the DEO. "Why do you think I know what happened to the Israelites?"

"We sent in some investigators, and found their residue," he said. "We know you have the power to do just that."

"Really? How would killing people help me?" He asked. "You know damn well I wouldn't do that. Yes! I can incinerate people, but it's not my forte."

"Calm down, JJ," Nia said, "You're raising the temperature in the room. Literally."

"This is a colossal mess. I was with Peppermint, and we fell asleep watching horror movies," he said.

"She can confirm your whereabouts?" He asked.

"Of course," he said. "Both of you can detect if I'm being deceptive. Why all this drama?"

"Why are you so aggressive?" J'onn asked.

"Because I'm an empath," he snapped. "I feel what you're feeling, and it's painful. I take this shit personally." JJ's aura caused the heat to rise in the room. It was already a stuffy interrogation room. He sensed the other minds outside the door thinking badly of him, and he brooded over it. "It's not fair that you have Kara and the rest of the team watching this. You've embarrassed me in front of my peers. I'd have never done this to you." He walked over to the door, looked back at J'onn, and said, "I fooled myself into believing I was part of the team. I thought we had a code." When he walked out of the room, Kara tried to approach him, and he put up his hands with his palms faced outwardly. "Leave me alone. I trusted you most of all." He transferred his essence into pure energy, and exited the building, and then reappeared at his apartment complex.

His living room…

"They think because we live in Little Africa that we're guilty of crimes we didn't commit," JJ said as he lay on the floor of the living room. "It was foolish of me to think they were any different than anybody else."

"It's unfortunate," Peppermint said. "But where do we go from here?"

"I'll just work with Cadmus," he said, "At least Rachel knows I wouldn't kill like that."

"We had already had sex, watched some television, and fallen asleep by the time of the murders," she said, "J'onn could have just scanned your mind." She walked over to his room for a moment and returned with several large posters. "I went to that store, 'Everything Black,' and look what I found." She had eight, large posters of Chuck Berry and three of Fats Domino.

"This is good news," he said, "How much?"

"Only fifty bucks for all of them," she said, "That's a steal." Suddenly, a rap on the door, and then Peppermint answered it quickly. It was Kara, and Peppermint pulled her into the apartment, and snapped, "JJ's your student. Why didn't you fight for him?"

"I did. I fought for you, but you stormed out of the building," she said. "I begged you to slow your roll."

"If I had known people were being murdered, I would have stopped it, Kara," he said, "I'd never allowed it."

"I know," she said. "I'm sorry for that. But why in the hell did you tell Alex about James and Maggie?" She asked.

"For the team," he said, "Fidelity is very important for a cohesive unit." He paused for a moment, walked over to Peppermint, and then said, "Has she told Maggie that she's aware of the betrayal?"

"Not yet," she said, "She discussed it with me this morning."

"I implored her to take her time, so she could use the right words, calculate the responses, so she won't regret anything." He looked up at her, and then said, "We should have told her months ago."

"You're right," she said. "But she estimates within the next week…"

Stepping out onto the roof, over to the sidewalk, JJ, Super Girl, and Peppermint discussed the possibility of a potential threat to the planet, and it already existed on Earth. There had been a rumor about a specialized weapon with enough power to kill super beings, and JJ found the information on the weapon in the Cadmus archives.

"But you're saying it's merely a glove?" Super Girl asked in a calm voice. She dressed as Kara and looked inconspicuous because she wore some Gothic clothing. Her black trench coat fitted her perfectly, and she had on some well-put-together, Gothic glasses. With JJ and Peppermint standing next to her, she seemed like part of the neighborhood.

"It's called the Glove of Darkness, and it's attached to a specific bloodline," JJ said with a grimace. "It was forged in the darkness to stave off godlike beings."

"You're sure this isn't merely myth?" Kara asked with her arms folded.

"No," he said, "I informed you because I don't want any surprises. If we come across its power, we must be aware."

"There's an ancient sect of monks that supposedly guards the glove until the next wielder becomes of age," Peppermint said. "But what makes the glove a problem is how it controls the user's emotions. In the wrong hands, it'll kill who it chooses to kill."

"But what about our current situation?" Kara asked. "What killed those eight guys?"

"Nobody asked me to investigate the scene, but from what I do know, the killer is local," he said. "In addition, he has great power." He pointed to the warehouse across the street, and then said, "The particle accelerator blast came from there." He paused for a moment. "The killer could be anybody within a block radius of the particle accelerator. We're the strongest meta-humans."

"I hate to say this," Kara said.

"What's that?" Peppermint asked.

"He has to strike again before we can figure this out," she said.

"Somebody had to capture the killers on video," JJ said.

"Nothing," Kara said, "There're cameras, but nobody has them turned on. Stay vigilant."

"You two, Kara," JJ said.

Next Day…

They promenaded down the avenue being JJ and Peppermint, and as some cars drove by, they honked. They wore their anachronistic clothing with pride, smiling and holding hands. The old, Reese home, rundown, neglected, and trash on the porch, was no different from the home two, three, four, or even five years ago; it was a home of a drunk who didn't care to do anything with her life. The chips of white paint covered the front porch. It looked like the old, lead based paint, and it bothered JJ. He held Peppermint's right hand as he bent down to look at the paint chips, and he immediately knew.

"That is lead," he said to Peppermint. "This should have been extracted years ago."

With a lot of work, contractors could strip all the lead out of Little Africa; it was one of the reasons for the aggressive behavior and low test scores. It was a cool, dreary day, a day with an overcast, a day that would change Vera's family forever. He had two devices: one for the brain and one for the body. In some ways, he experienced apprehension because Vera told him a million stories of how doctors promised to remove the urinary pouch. Every time her bag leaked, every time she couldn't do what the other students did, every time she liked a boy-all made her curse god. Her bag was her imprisonment, and she hated it. JJ knew all this because after each moment of hope came an extreme moment of dismay.

JJ knocked on the door, the flimsy door, and he could feel the heat coming from inside the home. It was a cold day, probably about thirty degrees outside, and if anybody else in the neighborhood wore the Steampunk winter clothing JJ and Peppermint wore, they'd be considered crazy.

It was early. A large portion of Little Africa prepared for church or some Sunday activity, but not the Reeses. Denise loved preaching god this and preaching god that, but she only called god when she had a financial burden or Vera was about to die. She called on God when Cooper arrived because God chose to give him fetal alcohol syndrome.

When Vera answered the door, she fit the image of the old, unloved cat lady: scraggly hair, drab face, unkempt appearance, pink bathrobe, and feline houseshoes. They walked directly into the living room, and Denise sat in her recliner with a bottle of bourbon in her night clothes. Only forty-two, but she looked approximately sixty-something with her bobble head of gray hair. She looked over at JJ and Peppermint and then scoffed for a moment.

"You two uppity bitches make me sick," Denise said as she drank her alcohol. "I see the way you look at us."

Cooper walked into the living room, small, with beady eyes, and a thin upper lip. It was obvious his father was a black man, and it was also obvious his mother drank insanely during the pregnancy.

JJ looked directly at Denise, and said, "You're pathetic, Denise. You've failed in life, and if you had a modicum of decency, you would see what your failure has caused." He looked over at Vera, and then said, "I'm sorry to talk to you momma like that, but she's out of hand."

"It's okay," she said. "We've had words."

Peppermint sat by the door so nobody would enter the room. Vera took all the blankets off her bed, folded them, and placed them in the corner. She stood in front of him looking pallid and weak, and it had to do with her acute calcium deficiency.

"What do you need me to do?" She asked in her soft voice.

"Just lay on the bed," he said. He set the case on the nightstand, pressed a button, and a computerized keyboard appeared. He punched in the code the Green Witch gave him, and the case opened.

"If this doesn't work, it's okay," she said, "You and Peppermint are my most endearing friends."

He smiled. "Untie your robe," he said. "I hope this doesn't make you uncomfortable."

"Only because I have scars, a bag, and generally disgusting," she said with a grimace. "I'm the mistake god made."

Vera opened her robe. She cried while doing it, and it made JJ very uncomfortable. He removed his winter, anachronistic clothing, and set them in the corner. He reached into her dresser drawer and pulled out some shirts. He placed one over her breast and another one over her vagina area.

"I want you to be comfortable, Vera," he said softly. "We're never to talk about what we're doing here right now." He placed his hands on her head and pushed the hair out of her face. "I need you to promise me. Do you promise never to tell?"

"JJ, you know I won't tell," she said. "I promise."

Her stomach looked like the doctors butchered her through the years. It was nothing more than a bunch of grooves and valleys, and it was a hideous sight. He had never seen so many scars on the human body in his entire life; it looked like the doctors practiced carving a turkey. Gently, he pulled off her urinary pouch, threw it in the trash, and then took out the medical device. The smaller one fit on the head and the larger one fit on her waist. Carefully, he placed the larger one on her stomach and pressed the green button on top of the device. It appeared to analyze her issues, and after about a good five minutes, the device said, "Narcotizing subject."

The machine released some small, DNA altering robots that traveled into her body, repaired all the damage including her kidneys, her uterus, and vulva. It rerouted everything, and made a functioning bladder, a new kidney, and repaired the old one. The grooves and valleys dissipated in front of his face, and he hadn't ever seen anything like it in his entire life. The whole process took nearly two hours, and JJ watched the entire process. "All done," the computer said.

When he lifted the device off her stomach, he couldn't detect one scar or blemish on her. The DNA altering robots wiped away any history of her scars. As he put the larger machine back in its case, he took out the smaller one. Pushing the green button, a glowing, yellow light encompassed her head, and the computer said, "Creating scientific brain." It took longer to rewire her brain than her body, and when the process finished, she began a heavy menstrual cycle.

She awoke, and asked, "Why am I bleeding?"

"Peppermint, come here?" JJ asked.

When she walked into the room, she already had the box of woman products, "The Green Witch warned of this."

"Am I okay?" She asked.

JJ walked out of the room with the case, and picked Cooper up with one arm, and twirled him around and around, and took him to his little bedroom. The kid laughed, and then he placed him on the bed.

"You want to play a game?" JJ asked.

"Okay," he said smilingly.

"Okay. Close your eyes," he ordered.

"Okay," the kid said. JJ placed the large device around Cooper's waist, and the robot repaired him on a DNA level. Once it finished, he placed on the head gadget and increased the child's IQ past one hundred and forty. He collected his things, and let the kid remain asleep.

JJ walked into the living room, and Denise lay in the recliner asleep, and she looked the mess: crumbs on her lap, throw up on her gown, greasy, gray hair, and a horrible body odor. She acted the same way every day. When Vera and Peppermint came from the backroom, she acted differently in how she carried herself.

"Can I have children?" Vera asked.

"Yes, but don't," JJ said. "Remember, you're going to raise a being so powerful that human beings won't be able to touch him directly. Make sure every boy you have sex with has a rubber."

"I'm a real girl now?" She asked.

"Vera, you were always a real girl," he said, "There are thousands of women with your same problem. I promise you that they're real women."

JJ and Peppermint took off their shoes, lay on the couch, and actually fell asleep, and it wasn't anything out of the ordinary for them. They often had spats with Denise about her drinking, so that was normal too. Tommy, Peppermint, Vera, Becky, Johnny, Nate, and JJ were all close and had their own click. So, when they fell asleep on Denise's couch after berating her on her drinking was business as usual. The other friends didn't hang with Vera like JJ and Peppermint did, but JJ and Peppermint visited the other friends, in the same manner, he did with Vera. What happened in Vera's house stayed in Vera's house. After about two hours, JJ heard Vera crying, and he immediately ran to her bedroom.

"Why are you crying?" He asked as she lay on her bed in sweats and a shirt.

She looked over at him with a grimace on her face, and said, "I don't know how to be normal."

He grabbed a hand mirror off her dresser. Gently, he raised up her shirt and displayed her stomach. He let her see her stomach through the hand mirror and then said, "It's perfect. You're all better."

"It seems so surreal," she said.

"I want you to take a good look," he said softly. "The future wanted you healed because you will be raising the greatest being in the universe someday. You must be of sound mind. You're whole. Your brother is whole."

"My mother is broken," she said. "Can you make her whole?"

JJ walked into the living room, tapped Denise on the shoulder, and she struggled to wake up. The stench of a horrendous life cloaked her entire aura, and it bothered him. She hadn't worked a decent job in forever and lived off the government's dole. She gave her life to the bottle, and the fact she allowed her alcoholism to deform the mind of her child was unforgivable. "Wake up Denise," he said loudly. He shook her again and again, and then out of nowhere, he shocked her to wake.

"What the fuck, JJ?" She asked. "Damn!"

"I don't know how not to think about you as an idiot, but I think the real Denise lurks behind all the alcohol and shame," he said. "Your hands shake. Your alcoholism poisoned your son. You've let the pain of life destroy you." Peppermint sat up on the couch and stretched.

"You have no right to talk to me like this," she said, "I tried my best to be a good parent."

"If I told you your son was the smartest kid in National City, what would you think?"

"JJ, you're being silly," Denise said.

"Actually, he's the smartest kid I know," Peppermint said.

"You better not say Cooper is anything lesser than a genius in your eyes," he said, "You need to see him as intelligent so he'll know he's intelligent."

"You two haven't seen the IQ test," she said loudly. "He's like a sixty-five."

JJ could feel her pain because of his empathic abilities, and he wanted to be hard, but he felt a great deal of pity for her. "You could never look at Vera, and see her beauty, Denise. You've always blamed her for this. You ever think Danny deserved all the blame."

She began to sob loudly. "I hate that my children are born with defects, but that's God's will."

"I don't think that's God's will," Peppermint said.

"Vera! Come here, please?" JJ asked in a strong voice. She walked into the living room in her gray, baggy sweats. She had her hair in a ponytail with a long-sleeved, blue shirt. "She's beautiful," JJ said.

"Very beautiful," Peppermint said.

"Aren't you going to tell her?" JJ asked of Denise.

"Of course I think she's pretty," she snapped.

"Can I be honest?" He asked.

"Go ahead," she said with a grimace.

"Vera's breasts are way-way better than yours," he said. Peppermint started laughing.

"True! True!" Peppermint exclaimed.

"You have two kids, and see what happens," she said. "Vera will never experience childbirth."

"Says who?" Peppermint asked.

"Doctors," she said.

"Right now as I'm speaking to you, your daughter is one of the most important human beings on the planet," he said, "I'm serious."

"Why?" Denise asked.

"I need you to promise me you won't say anything about what we're about to show you," he said.

"What's so important?" She asked.

"Promise, Momma?" Vera said.

"I promise," she said in a lazily way.

"Take off your clothes," Peppermint said.

When she pulled off her shirt, she had on a white bra, and she had normal sized breast, but it was her stomach area that was of the most important in JJ's view.

"Wait?" Denise asked. "Where're the scars?"

"She's on her period right now, so there's no reason to show that," he said, "Oh. She can have babies, but you must ensure she doesn't."

She walked over to her daughter and began to sob. "I don't understand."

"At this point, I don't think we need you to understand this. We just need your compliance," he said. "This is your daughter. She's a whole woman as of today."

When Cooper walked into the room, he said, "What's this? A fashion show?" He walked over to the recliner, and said, "Momma, all my books are baby books. I need something adult."

She looked over at him, and asked, "Your face is different!"

"He's whole, Denise," JJ said. "Now, we need to make you whole."

"How is this happening?" She asked.

"A future world beyond this world wants Vera whole because she will adopt a child in the future who will decide if humankind lives or dies," Peppermint said. "Now, I want you to understand the importance of that."

"This is the reason why we must make you whole, Denise," JJ said. "Family is paramount in making children whole."

Denise sat on the couch for a moment and then said, "I have breast cancer. It's stage four. I have only months to live."

"Oh my gawd," Cooper said, "Why didn't you tell us?"

"Lie down, Denise," Peppermint said. "We'll use the device, and it will tell us if it can or can't heal you."

JJ pulled the machine out of the black box, placed it on her stomach, and it began to analyze her. Peppermint grabbed his shoes and handed them to him as they waited for the process to finish. For what seemed like a long time, a green light radiated her breast, and then the machine said, "Narcotizing patient." He went through the same process that it did previously, and when he placed the equipment back in the suitcase, Vera grabbed their coats.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

It was Sunday morning, two days after Tommy killed the Israelites, and he worried the cops would find out about the murderer at some point. Becky hadn't left her abode since the killings, and she wouldn't return any of Tommy's text. He thought she needed some quality time to process the incident, or at least the brutal rape. It all happened so fast that he didn't have time to prepare for the attack, and since he hadn't mastered his gifts, his delayed response couldn't save her from the horrors of being raped. He sat in the rear of the church, stared across the pews, and wondered if anybody suspected that he killed them. Reverend Tater spent the entire sermon on the violence in Little Africa. The entire sermon boiled down to forgiving each other before violence tore through the neighborhood.

Tommy leaned over, grabbed a hymnal, and turned to the song, "Amazing Grace." The church sang the song, and he just mumbled it because coping with what he had done wasn't easy. He wiped his hands on his thighs and then sat the hymn back in its place. The collection plate traveled around the room, and people gave generously in the hopes the money would go towards the infected families of the tragedy. His Momma spent almost the whole sermon on Big Bubba Jones, but she referred to him by his real name, "Leroy Jones."

Most of the Israelites, at least the ones not in National City, didn't rape, but National City had a plethora of imposters. They worked like buzzards, and often proposition women as they walked through the area. Reverend Tater praised Leroy's Baptism, and she said, "Once you've been Baptized in the blood, you're in the blood." The people cheered at those words. but Tommy knew a lot of the hostility towards interracial couples came from the Internet channels opposed to them. The hatred wove its way into every aspect of society, and some people felt they had the right to infect others with their myopic point of view. Leroy sat in Mickey's, spewed his vitriol, and then raped Becky, and he paid with his life.

After church service, he traveled to National City to hang with Ricky and Berry, and with the help of the music department, they practiced their songs inside the school's band room He sent a text to JJ, and he was over Vera's, and then he sent one to Becky, but she didn't return his message. He figured he'd run by her abode as soon as he finished with rocking it with the boys, but at the same time, he worried she might tell.

Tommy stood on the platform, looking out at the rest of the room, and Ricky and Berry were on the base floor with the drums and bass guitar. The music was hardcore rock and roll, and they played original tunes.

The guitar Terry used to execute the gang members was strapped to his back, and he couldn't wait to play it. The school had all the equipment needed: drums, guitar, and bass guitar. Tommy did most of the singing, and he loved it. His voice roared throughout the building, and since they were the only ones in the place, they played as loud as they wanted to play.

The group did several rounds of songs, but after about the third round, they wanted to discuss the name of the band.

Ricky stood a little over six-feet tall and had on a rebel t-shirt. He wore it all the time and had the same emblem on his old, Ford pickup. He didn't mind how offensive his rebel flag was to anybody outside of his click, but it didn't matter. Tommy didn't pay it much attention. Ricky said, "Rebel is part of my heritage. I think we should go with that name."

"I can't in good conscience go with that name," Tommy said in a strong voice as he looked right at him. "Junkyard Demons is much more palatable across the board. I fear with the rebel attached to our name we'll be too controversial for most gigs."

"But aren't we moving in a new direction?" Berry asked. He took off his bass guitar, set it on the stand, and asked, "Aren't we moving to a more separatist nation?"

"Surely it's just a movement," Tommy said calmly. "It wouldn't be in our best interest to take on the movement if we want our band to have any substance. Hold that thought?" He asked. "I have to run to the bathroom."

He sat in the stall for a moment, gave a lot of thought to the name, and he couldn't move past his understanding of the Rebel name: it meant oppression. He had thought about the idea of the name since Berry proposed it a week or so earlier, and he couldn't do it. If his two bandmates insisted on the Rebel name, he thought about leaving the group and forming another group with Jonathan and Nate, at least they had an understanding of the offensive nature of the name. When he walked back towards the band room, he heard Berry say something horrible.

"I don't care what that Nigger thinks," he said, "Some hoodlum from Little Africa ain't going to tell me what the name of my band will be."

Tommy walked back into the room, and asked, "How often do you refer to me as a Nigger guys?"

They stood quietly in front of him for a moment. "Well…"

He laughed for a moment. "You refer to me as a Nigger all the time don't you?"

"No offense," Ricky said. "It's just the way we were raised. I mean Niggers are fighting for the crumbs off their masters' tables."

"I see," Tommy said. He picked up his beautiful guitar, and let his energy flow into it. He began to play a beautiful ballad, and the stream of energy from his guitar gorgonized his compadres. They stood in the middle of the band room incapable of moving. Suddenly a thrust of energy hit Berry, and it nailed him upside down to the far wall. He looked like an upside down cross, and then he did the same thing to Ricky. They were completely stuck in place. "I'm always amazed at how you want black people to worship you," Tommy said loudly. "Now, prepared to be worshiped." He took out his pocket knife, showed it to Berry, and let him soak in the sight of it. "Educated slaves often rise up against their oppressors. Since you choose to be my oppressor, I choose to be your murderer." He slit Berry's throat first, and Ricky screamed loudly. "You're experiencing the wrath of a real rebel." He looked directly at Ricky, right in his pallid face, and watched him cry. "Master, you shouldn't cry. It's natural for the slave to rise against his master. This is the natural process of life."

"You're crazy, Tommy," he screamed.

"It's funny how you expect me to worship you," Tommy said, "From the time of my youth, I've looked up at that image of Jesus, and thought why. I tried to believe whiteness was godly, but it always was a hard pill for me to swallow. So, I'll show you a picture of your god before I dispatch you, and let the world see your body on display." He laughed. "This Nigger is going to make you famous." He showed him an image of black Jesus on his phone.

"I can't pray to that," he screeched. He cut Ricky's throat and watched him bleed out on the floor with his friend.

Meanwhile…

JJ and Peppermint sat in Martin Luther King Jr's Park, and it was kind of cold, but they didn't care. She lay on his lap as he had his left arm over her midsection. The leaves had pretty much fallen off all the trees, and they missed most of it. It was one of the things they enjoyed every year.

"Tommy texted me," JJ said, "Becky's not texting him back."

"That's weird," she said. "Let's do a walk by."

"Okay," JJ said.

Becky's house…

It was around four o'clock in the afternoon, and when the couple went over to Becky's hovel, it was extremely noisy with so many people in and about the place. They were always having crazy, Jewish parties for reasons JJ didn't understand, and as soon as he walked up on the porch, Becky's momma, Alice Ableman, stuffed some lamb and pita bread in his mouth. It melted.

"See! Even the two Atheists like my cooking," she said.

"It is good cooking," Peppermint said. "Is Becky here?"

"Yeah. She's been in her room," she said. When the couple walked into the house, there must have been ten people roaming around drinking wine and laughing loudly. Some of them were traditional Jewish people, and they did what they do. Of course, when the couple walked into a room full of people, they usually paused for a second until they realized it was JJ and Peppermint, and then they would say, "Oh. It's just JJ and Peppermint."

"JJ, how are you doing?" Mister Abelman asked.

"Pretty good, sir," he said.

"Still Atheist?" He asked.

"You know it," he said, "I know you don't want to have an Old Testament battle up in here."

"And get beaten in front of my people?" He said. "I'm not doing that again."

"'That's funny, Mister Abelman. You taught me," JJ said.

"Yeah. You use to needle me with questions," he said. "I thought I had done something wrong in a past life or something with the way you use to beat me up with questions."

The entire house smelled like lamb, and they were having some kind of feast, but Becky chose to stay out of it. When JJ and Peppermint knocked on the door, she screamed, "What?"

"It's JJ and Peppermint," he said.

She opened the door and then hopped back onto her pink bed. She loved everything pink, and it was evident in the way she dressed her room. The picture of her and Tommy that set above her bed was gone, and that was the first thing he noticed. The window of her bedroom led to the backyard, and it was perfect for Tommy to sneak into her bedroom in the middle of the night. The fenced in backyard kept a dog in it, and every now and again, it would bark.

"What's up between you and Tommy?" JJ asked. She was somewhat frumpy, but not too overweight, but didn't have a body of a model either. She looked stress, and JJ felt her stress empathically; it was safe to say she was very stressed. In any case, Becky acted like she didn't want any visitors, but since it was JJ, she let him into her room.

"Just don't want to talk to him right now," she said with a grimace. "We were attacked early this morning."

Peppermint gasped, and the asked, "By the Israelites?"

"They raped me," she said with a grimace. "I was so scared." She paused for a moment, and then said, "But that wasn't the worse of it."

"Tell us," JJ said.

"It's Tommy," she said, "He incinerated the Israelites with the power of music. He's calling himself Mister Melody."

"Were you imbued with special powers?" JJ asked.

"I can push air," she said.

"How about the ability to fly?' He asked.

"Nope," she said. "I didn't know Tommy had powers, but he's strong."

He listened to Becky closely and immediately realized Tommy can't be held responsible for defending himself. "Tommy killed those men in self-defense, right?"

"Yes," she said, "They attacked us and he defended himself."

"But how do you feel about it?" Peppermint asked.

"I'm frightened he enjoyed the killing," she said.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Six O'Clock in the morning...

It was approximately six o'clock in the morning, a Monday morning, and James Olsen placed his forehead on his work desk. Kara informed him Alex knew about him and Maggie, and when he asked about how she found out, she said, "JJ." He sucked his teeth and then asked his secretary to blow up a photograph of JJ, so he could place it on his wall. The picture of the young hero was on the east wall, and he started throwing darts into it to relieve stress. He didn't hate the young hero from Little Africa, but he didn't like him very much.

"Sir, how big do you want the photo of JJ?" Ms. Teschmacher asked. "Large, extra large, or wall-sized?"

"That wall-sized sounds good because I don't want to ever not miss when I'm throwing darts at his head, but an extra large will do."

"You don't like him much do you?" She asked.

"Not really," he said with a grimace. "Not really."

Six Forty-Five in the morning…

James seemed to be stuck in his own little world, as he viewed reports on the administrative side of CATCO, but when Lena walked past, she immediately caught his attention. He didn't have anything to say to her because all the reports were typical. Ms. Teschmacher placed a cup of green tea on his desk, and he drank it steadily. She kept her hair blond and professional at all times, and she always wore upbeat clothing that lightened the mood of the office. She spoke in a nasally high-pitched voice that sounded off-putting at times, but with JJ being the focused of his anger, he found her voice soothing.

Suddenly, James watch beeped, and when he looked down at it, he saw JJ's name and tried to ignore it. He then left a message that read.

JJ's Message:

Two dead bodies found at National City High School. The media mentioned the killings might be ritualistic in nature. I'm heading down and will hand over what I find to you.

End of Message

"Ugh," James said.

James' Message

Thank you!

End of Message

National City High…

JJ landed about a block from the school, and he wore his black trench coat, shirt, tie, black slacks, and looked gothic professional. When he walked into the school, he flashed his DEO badge, and nobody thought twice to mess with him. When he walked into the band room, Maggie saw him immediately and grimaced at him. He walked up to her, and she placed her left palm on his face and walked away from him.

"Let's not get personal," JJ said. "The families of these boys want answers." Immediately, she turned around to him and pointed at his face.

"I would have told her in time," she snapped. "I didn't need you for that."

"I did what I had to do for the team," he said. "If I didn't care about you guys, I would have let the affair continue."

Maggie walked away from him, and then he stood about twenty feet away from the pool of blood, but when he saw the boys' faces, he knew who they were. The bodies were upside down with their arms extended. The necks were cut, and the blood drained onto the floor.

"Maggie, is there any video footage?" He asked calmly.

"Nothing. Not even on the outside of the school," she said.

"I'm putting the timeline between four and six o'clock in the afternoon yesterday," he said. "The kid on the right died first. His name is Berry. His face is expressionless, and he didn't realize what was happening by the time he bled out. The kid on the left knew exactly what was happening. His name is Ricky." He squatted down for a minute, and then said, "They're a small rock group that practices after school and on Sundays."

"Was the killer human or meta?" Maggy asked.

"Meta," he said. "A strong meta, Maggie. His powers are still holding the bodies in place." He turned to her for a moment, and said, "It's highly possible they have some brain activity left. Usually, for up to three days I can extract information from a dead body."

"Okay," she said, "What if they do?"

"With electrical impulses, I might be able to see the killer's face," he said. "I practiced this technique in training, but never on a real case."

"Do it," she said.

Suddenly, electrical sparks shot out of his hands, penetrated Berry's skull, and he maintained a connection to him for approximately five seconds. It didn't take him long to find out who cut his throat, and he didn't like what he saw. He looked directly at Tommy's face, but that wasn't the scariest part. He heard what Tommy said, and he feared his best friend had gone mad. He looked back at Maggie as she paced the floor, and said, "The killer's name is Tommy Tater."

She paused for a moment, and asked, "The preacher's son?"

"One and the same," he said. "He's gone mad. They had a tiff over the name of their band, and then they started calling Tommy the n-word. He appeared to snap when one of the boys said, 'You get the crumbs from your master's table.'" He looked up at Maggie, and then said, "You should be writing this down."

"Oh. This is actually what happens?" She asked.

"Yeah," he said. "When he snapped, he said, 'Educated slaves often kill their masters.'" He looked over at Berry, and then said, "He didn't realize how angry Tommy was until he actually cut his neck."

"Which school does Tommy attend?" Maggie asked.

"This one," he said. "Maggie, you have your guy. I have to get to class."

CATCO…

James sent all the photo and information that JJ collected with a detailed transcript of everything said before, during, and after the killings. Immediately, CATCO already had a slew of articles on the killings before they ever picked up Tommy Tater. His picture went out all over the news, and James expected the cops would have him in custody within the hour. He waited by his computer for information on the arrest from Maggie, but he hadn't heard anything. Suddenly, the entire city's airwaves lit up, and a boatload of ambulances was dispatched to the location. James sent out two vans of news reporters, and within fifteen minutes, nothing but chaos ensued.

News Report:

This is Channel Five Action News with Lisa Debarge. We have a mega meta-human named Mister Melody who killed eight police officers near National City High School. The cops were ambushed in front of the school, and they didn't stand a chance against this powerful mega meta-human. There are already reports coming down from the state that we need laws enacted to deal with the rise of the meta-humans. We have to take our streets back. Hold on a second. I'm getting an update in my news feed. It appears we have an additional sixteen cops killed, and National City needs Supergirl.

End of Report

News Report:

This is CATCO Media live on the scene, and we have Supergirl and the Guardian against Mister Melody, and it looks like they have the guitar playing rebel cornered on the far side of National City High. From what I can tell, Mister Melody shot Supergirl with some kind of laser from his guitar, and it catapulted her across the sky. The Guardian fought Mister Melody in hand to hand combat, but the guitar playing rebel hit him with his magical guitar and tore off a piece of his armor.

End of Report

Little Africa High…

JJ sat on the floor in English class with Peppermint, and he handed her a peppermint ball, and then she smiled at him. He received a call on his cell phone, and when he pulled it out of his pocket, the screen read James Olsen.

"What's going on?" JJ asked.

"Supergirl and I are fighting Mister Melody, and he's strong. We need you," he said.

"Fine," he said.

National City High…

JJ descended down on the scene in his black, retro anachronistic clothing, and landed directly in front of Mister Melody. He had his guitar strapped onto his back, and it was the one with Peppermints face printed boldly on the front. "What are you doing, Tommy?" JJ asked.

"I could never beat you in anything," he said with a grimace. "You always had a way of one-upping everybody."

"Have I ever thrown it in your face?" He asked.

"Yeah. You have," he said.

"Okay. Okay. But have I thrown it in your face lately?" He asked.

"Yes. When Vera won the contest."

"You have a good memory. That's something," JJ said. "Tommy placed down your weapon, and give up." Supergirl landed by JJ's side, and so did the Guardian.

"Why should I merely give up?" He asked. "I mean I have enough power to tussle with Supergirl."

"You ever think she's taking it easy on you because you're my best friend?" He asked. "I want you to get help."

"Listen to your friend," Supergirl said. "We don't want any more bloodshed."

All of a sudden, Mister Melody shot a powerful beam at them, and JJ blocked it with his electromagnetic field. The Guardian and Supergirl flew to the opposite sides of his old friend. As soon as that happened, Peppermint came out of the clouds and hit him with a boatload of sticky stuff, and that made it impossible for him to strum the strings of his guitar. JJ hit him with a burst of lightning from the ground, and it caused his friend to pass out. James broke the concrete like case around him and restrained his wrist with some dampening cuffs.

News Report:

This is Channel Five Action News with Lisa Debarge. It appears the Vulcan and Ms. Sticky helped Supergirl and the Guardian to take down Mister Melody. Unfortunately, National City has just experienced its greatest amount of dead cops in its history. Currently, we have the confirmed deaths of twenty-four peace officers. We implore you to keep these officer's families in your prayers.

End of Report

Little Africa High…

JJ and Peppermint sat by the fence, ate lunch, and were somber over Tommy's madness. He held his girlfriend close to him, kissed her on the neck, and told her he loved her. "Where did we go wrong?" He asked with a sadness about him. "We grew up with Tommy. He was boxy."

"You don't act like you're better than everybody," she said with a smile. "I heard what he said to you. Besides, how can that make him randomly just kill people?"

He looked down the hill at the other students mingling, and then he said, "But I thought there would be a sign. He went from hot to cold so fast that it caught me completely off guard."

"Could it have been about jealousy?" She asked. "No. It was about the Israelites. That's when it all went down hill."

"I was just thinking about something," he said.

"What's that?" He asked.

"You and I were nurtured and coddled by Cadmus, Supergirl, and the like," she said. "We had a support group of heros to keep us from going off the deep end."

"The Justice Corp is defunct," JJ said, "But something like that could help us build an organization dedicated to the betterment of meta-humans."

Suddenly, a siren blast went off, and Supergirl raced through the air, and then she jettisoned the other way. JJ and Peppermint caught up with her to see the problem. The siren was still going off, and it was louder than anything he had ever heard.

"Your boy escaped," she said, "Tommy is on the loose."

"What the hell happened, Kara?" JJ asked. "He's going to go into hiding now."

"We thought the dampeners would work, but somehow it didn't," she said. "He's evasive."

"This puts a number of people in danger," Peppermint said. "What about Becky?"

"We're heading back to school, Kara, but we have to get him into custody before he kills somebody else," he said.

"I know. I know," she said. "Just keep your phone at the ready. We're going to need all hands on deck when he shows up."

"Yes, ma'am," he said.

Peppermint looked over at JJ, and said, "Vera's of the utmost importance, and we have to ensure he doesn't attack her."

"He doesn't know of her worth to the future," he said with a grimace. "We'll stay on her, but we have to just be us." He paused for a moment. "We have to just be the gang, and hang out like we always do."

It was approximately two hours after Tommy Tater's escape from Supergirl's custody, and the whole situation had JJ on edge. He tried to talk to James, but he wasn't in the texting mood, and acted slighted over exposing his affair with Maggie. Peppermint grabbed all the homework from their classes, and they worked their schoolwork in the hallway outside of Vera's last class. Due to their accelerated classes, they were usually on their way home from school by two o'clock in the afternoon. The rest of the students were in class until four o'clock in the afternoon.

"How in the heck did she lose him?" Peppermint said, "She's Supergirl."

"He's dangerous," JJ said. He placed his right hand on her knee, and then smiled. "She underestimated him, but he killed around thirty-four people without a problem. I'm not sure if he displayed any remorse."

"That's a lot of people," she whispered. "I fear there'll be more, and that scares me."

He felt worried over his next move with Tommy because he hadn't used his true powers, the powers that overwhelmed just about any target, and would kill some of the most powerfulest beings in the universe. If he did that to his best friend, he feared he wouldn't be able to live with it. "I'm frightened I might have to resort to my omega powers with Tommy."

"You completely incinerated a tank, and you weren't near full strength," she said, "There will be nothing left if you have to do that."

"There's no turning this around, Peppermint," he said. "We can't bring him back to civilization. He'll die in prison at this point."

Peppermint leaned back against the hallway wall, and JJ had his head on her lap while doing some light reading. She smelled like a sweet perfume, and then both of them dozed off on the floor. When the bell rang, JJ felt someone tap him on the shoulder, and it was Vera with a large smile. He reached out his right hand, and she helped him up off the ground. He then helped up his girl friend.

"Have you seen Becky?" JJ asked Vera.

"Not since lunch," she said. "I have her in this math class, but she wasn't in there."

"I'm going to call her," Peppermint said as she pulled out her cell phone. "It's ringing." She paused for a moment, and then said, "Becky. Say something." She looked over at JJ, and then asked, "Where are you?" She nodded a few times, and said, "Don't upset him. We're on our way."

"What's going on?" JJ asked.

"He took her to the old Fairgrounds," she said. "He went to get her some food, but he threatened to kill her and then himself if she tried to leave him."

"He's gone mad," Vera said. "What do you want me to do?" She asked.

"We can get Nate to walk you home," he said. "I trust him."

He walked towards them from down the hallway, and Peppermint said, "Nate! Walk Vera home."

"Okay," he said with a smile.

"Don't try anything with her either," JJ said. "I'm warning you."

"I'm not," he said, "I'm one of the good guys."

When they walked outside, he pushed a button on his watch, and within minutes, Supergirl and the Guardian were in front of him.

"Old Fairgrounds," JJ said with a grimace. "He has Becky Abelman with him, and he's threatening to kill himself."

"You know we're using deadly force on this one," James said.

"I don't like it, but I don't think we have any other choice," he said.

Fairgrounds…

The numbers on the buildings were not sequential at all, and it upset JJ because he had to find out where Becky was located through other means.

"I can't see anything," Supergirl said. "The amount of lead paint on these old buildings is insane."

JJ placed his hands to the wet ground, and a spiderweb of electricity came out of them. It spread throughout the entire area like it had a mind of its own, and entered into every structure in the area until it found life. "I sensed them," he said. He pointed to the building where they were located. "Peppermint and I are going in for now."

"Why you two?" James asked.

"Because we're the ones who love him," he said. "We're the best bet of a peaceful resolution."

"Fine," James said, "But don't mess up."

JJ and Peppermint flew into the air, landed in front of the building, and entered through the front door. Becky sat in a cage with tears rolling down her face, and Tommy sat on top of the cage.

"Tommy!" JJ exclaimed.

"I knew you'd find me," he said. "What happens when Supergirl decides you're the enemy? She's nothing but a girl scout."

"Let me take you out of here, Tommy?" He asked. "Peppermint and I will take you into custody, and give you over to the DEO."

"I'm not turning myself into the DEO, police or anybody," he said. "This is my last stand. It's all or nothing, and I will be using deadly force."

He inched closer to the case, and Becky's eyes were swollen shut. "How can you treat Becky like this?" He asked. "You told me you loved her."

He began to speak in a strong voice, and said, "She broke up with me, JJ. After I saved her fucking life, protected her, and did everything i could for her. She said she didn't want me any more." He began to cry and slobber, and he held onto his chest with both hands. JJ hadn't ever seen him so distraught in all the years he had known him. "She told me she wanted to explore dating guys in her own race. What the fuck does that even mean?" He looked down at her as she cried in the cage, and said, "Was I just a fucking fetish? Was I just a black dick to piss off your father?"

"No, Tommy," she said with tears running down her face. "I mean at first it was about upsetting my father, but then I grew to like you."

"Oh dear," Peppermint said. "This is not going to end well."

"You only like me," he whispered. Suddenly, he hit her with a laser from his hands, and incinerated her in the cage. The blast was so strong that it sent a shockwave throughout the building, and caused it to collapse. Immediately, he threw up a very powerful electromagnetic field that protect Peppermint and himself, but when he looked over at Tommy, he allowed himself to be completely crushed. He picked up the large piece of concrete, and flew up in the air with it, and she flew up with him.

"He's dead isn't he?" Supergirl said.

"He killed her," Peppermint said crying. JJ held onto her closely while they floated in the air, and they both cried.

"We were too close to the subjects," JJ said. "I wasn't thinking clearly, and it cost two lives." He turned towards the collapsed building, and used his powers to lift the debris off his old comrade. Tommy's dead body lay in front of him, and he gently lifted him out of the debris. "He may not feel anymore pain, but we will always carry this day with us, Peppermint. This is a great loss for us. We've known them since kindergarten."

"Where's Becky's body?" James asked.

"Dust," he said. "He made her disappear in front of our eyes. It was like magic," he said as he cried.

"Wait a minute?" Kara asked. "I hear her."

"Where?" Peppermint asked.

"She's on the other side of that hill," Supergirl said.

Without warning, JJ and Peppermint took off into the air, and when they saw Becky laying on the ground crying, they landed in front of her, and started hugging her like she was the last person on Earth.

"Tommy killed himself," JJ said. "I wanted to save him. I truly did, but I didn't anticipate he'd kill himself."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

JJ sat on the fifth floor of the DEO, in his office, and worked on his report over the suicide of Tommy Tater, the metahuman called Mister Melody. It was Tuesday the seventeenth of October, about three o'clock in the afternoon. Peppermint stayed at school to work on the Halloween, fifties style tribute to Chuck Berry. Nia sat with him and helped him deal with the emotional parts of what happened.

"You must find some way to deal with your anger, JJ," she said softly. "Your atheism isn't helping you with matters like this. I'm a robot, but I believe in a higher power. Luciferous imbued my race with sentience, and we hold him as our god."

"I can master all the meditation techniques without prostrating before some god," he said, "You know techniques, and can teach me. But from what I can tell, I have no proof there's a so-called god worthy of my worship."

"Says the god," she said.

"Oh, Nia. If I were this god you speak of, my best friend would be at Mickey's with me right now eating a Mickey burger and fries," he said, "We'd be laughing about Nate ogling Vera and Johnny's white-boy dance. We'd be having a good ole' time." He laid his head on the table, and then said, "I don't know how to cope with this."

"Time. It takes time," she said.

Supergirl walked through the office door, laid back on the couch, and then said, "That's the third funeral," she said with a straight face. "I have four tomorrow, and six on Thursday."

"All I've heard since the incident is the need to put us in a database, so they can track our every movement. It's like nobody cares about the cops, but only how to use their deaths to enslave us."

"Even at the funeral they talked about the need to track metahumans," she said. "The rhetoric on this issue won't die overnight, and something will be passed."

"We'll need a contingency of lobbyist in Washington to protect our interest," JJ said. "It's the only way we can make it work."

"Wait? What are you thinking?" Nia asked.

"Right now we don't have an organization and a financial backbone that ensures our viability. Mister Wayne pulled back his financial support for the organization when it opposed a metahuman tax."

"We have metahumans throughout the United States and the rest of the world who can join the organization. Governments around the world will pay us a fee to protect them," he said.

"A price for protection?" Supergirl asked. "That's crazy."

"We pay for the cops," he said. "We pay for the military." He paused for a moment, and then asked, "Shouldn't we pay for an organization who can stave off catastrophic events like hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and mudslides?"

"This plan would definitely make the organization self-sufficient," Nia said.

"The Justice Corp would have a president who would sit on the throne for a maximum of two four-year terms. It will have an ambassador to the UN, and a contingency to all major governments in the world. In addition, we'll need a contingent of soldiers above the planet as well as stationed in all major countries."

"Nobody will go for that," Supergirl said.

"Maybe not, but this new Justice Corp will be able to suss out metahumans, educate them, and give them the best training in the world. The faster we can get them in the organization the faster we can ensure they're on the track to a successful life."

"You just have it all worked out, don't you?" Supergirl asked.

"I wrote this plan in June," he said. "I gave it to Superman."

"What?" Supergirl asked. "Really, JJ? You freaking dog."

"Only because he led the Justice Corp previously," he said. "It wasn't to disrespect you, Kara. I wouldn't do that."

"You could have at least told me in June," she said, "I spent all that damn time whipping you, James, and Peppermint into warriors and then you do this."

"That's not fair," he said, "You're making like your input isn't paramount to me."

"You have nice words, JJ, but you still stabbed me in the back," she said.

"Take that back, Kara," he said, "I've given you my loyalty since day one, and you know it!"

"Next time keep me in the loop," she said.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

When the building collapsed at the fairgrounds, it broke a sewage pipe and it leaked all over the area. A team of highly skilled construction workers moved into the area to remove all the debris, and it was a dangerous job. Where the building once stood looked like a mountain of debris, and broken chunks of rock were all over the area. Charlie Tanaga—wearing his orange hardhat—surveyed the rubble, and then moved in with his crane, and easily pulled off large layers of the building. He had the first, large piece of rock in the air, and tossed it to the side for a moment because he saw something crimson laying in the rubble. Quickly, he exited his machine, saw the crimson guitar laying on the ground, and it was in perfect shape. He reached down with his, tenebrous calloused hands, and clutched the guitar, and couldn't believe it was unscathed. He thought it would be a nice gift for his sixteen-year-old son, Shonny, who wanted one for his seventeenth birthday only a few days away. With all the medical bills piling up to fight Shonny's leukemia, he thought the crimson guitar was a propitious find. He wiped off the dust, and placed it in his truck across the way, and then went back to removing the debris out of the way.

Charlie struggled all the time with providing for his three children, especially with his oldest, Shonny, suffering from cancer. For years, he grew at a rapid pace, and by the time he was in the seventh grade, he was already near six feet tall. He expected his boy to play basketball, and if God blessed him, then go on to play professional basketball one day. That was the dream Charlie had for Shonny. But like with all things good, they often came to an end, and for Shonny, it happened when he was in the ninth grade, his first year at National City High. It was during the final game of the season, a basketball game against Little Africa, the team who beat them every year. With Shonny being the lead scorer, National City High was on the verge of winning. It was about twenty minutes left in the game, and Little Africa trailed by twenty points. Shonny went for a layup, and came down hard on his right foot, breaking the ankle. He screamed and writhed—and cried out for his father, and Charlie raced down onto the court to care for his boy. The paramedics came, hauled him off to the hospital, and within hours, Charlie knew his son was terminal. It was the worse news he ever heard in his entire life.

When he walked into his son's hospital room and saw the bags underneath his eyes, he knew his days were few. He tried to think where he went wrong in life, and where he could have made changes to save his son's life. He hated it. He sat by his son's bed as the tubes went into his nose, and into his arms, and it appeared it was for palliative care more than anything else. Charlie sat by his bed with the guitar in his lap and cried for his pitiable son. He had sores on his forearms, and the doctors said it was a result of his treatment, but from what he could tell, the treatments didn't work. Daily, his son threw up whatever he consumed, and he looked frail. He was only a shell of what he used to be.

"Father, is that you?" Shonny asked. He could barely open his eyes, but Charlie quickly rose to his feet and placed his brown left hand on his chest.

"It's me, son," he said. "It's me."

He looked over at the guitar, smiled, and then asked, "Is that for me?"

"It is, son," he said. "It's in mint condition."

"Set it next to me," Shonny said. "Just let me hold it." He gripped the guitar with his weak hands and tried to hold it, but he struggled with it. His brittle nails constantly broke off, and it looked like he had been chewing on them. Everything about his gaze was cold and almost empty, but when he clutched the guitar, he smiled through the pain. He strummed the strings with no understanding of music whatsoever, but he didn't care. He did it again and again, and then he looked up at his father in his weakened state, and said, "It feels good, father."

Teary-eyed, Charlie stepped in the hallway and tried to overcome the pain in his heart. He heard his boy struggling to play the guitar, and he hadn't seen him that happy in a long time. He fell to his knees and began to pray that God would bless his family, heal his son, and make him great again. He looked up at the ceiling, and said, "I beg you, Lord. Give my boy your blessings, and make him great."

He fell to the ground, and one of the nurses patted him on the back. Suddenly, he heard a stream of wonderful music coming from his son's room, and out of nowhere, he played a beautiful melody. The guitar riffs were incredible, and it brought other patients to his room, and when they heard the beautiful music, they started dancing.

"Shonny, you played that?" Charlie asked.

"Yes, father," he said, "But can you call me Tommy?"


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

After JJ, Kara, Winn, and Nia had some dinner at Jackie's Diner, he stood for a moment, placed one hundred and fifty dollars on the table, and chatted while standing.

"You don't have to pay for us," Kara said.

"It's okay," JJ said. "You can get it next time."

"Why do you always have money?" James asked.

"I'm contracted labor," JJ said in a calm voice. "I make a lot of money analyzing what went wrong."

Nia laughed.

"What's funny?" James asked.

"He does more than just analyzes what went wrong, but also what went right, and how to make it better," she said.

"So, I have money, James," he said.

"Then why don't you live on this side of town?" He asked.

"With the bourgeois?" He asked. "How do I make Little Africa better by living among the people who don't understand our plight? It makes no sense. I would think the book, 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' would have taught you that as long as our people remained slaves, then all of us are slaves. Uncle Tom said, 'As long as my people are slaves, I can never be free.' No matter how much money I make, I can't truly enjoy it as long as my people remain on the bottom."

"I didn't read that book," he said.

"But you have a graduate degree," JJ said.

"It wasn't required reading," James replied.

"I hope one day you'll read it," he said. "Maybe for Black History Month. That way we can discuss it on an intellectual level."

"I read it," Nia said. "Uncle Tom was strong of character. Stood against oppression and violence. He never raised a hand against another slave. Gave up a good life, so the young slaves wouldn't know the brutality of the auction block. Yes, Mister Olsen. You should definitely read that book."

"I think I'm going to read it also," Kara said.

About thirty minutes later…

JJ received a message from his girlfriend that said, "At home." He sent her back a smiley face. Walking in front of the police station on the main street, an Indian woman and a white man walked out of it, and she sobbed loudly. Most of the time when he saw somebody crying, he merely went about his business. But when he saw her, a pain raced through his frontal lobe, it was like a severe case of brain freeze, and it stopped him where he stood. Looking onward, he stopped, tried to let the pain pass, but he couldn't. He stood in the middle of the sidewalk while people brushed past him, and called him horrible names in the process. One man called him an asshole, and then JJ snapped.

"What did you say to me?" JJ asked. He felt he face contorting, and he wanted to hurt the guy. It was the first time he recalled in a long time that he didn't have control.

The guy turned to him, and said, "I didn't say anything to you. Are you crazy?" The man swatted the air as if to say, "I'm not going to be bothered with you." But at the same time, JJ knew what he heard. When the Indian woman brushed past him, he saw her thirteen-year-old son, at least the image of him in his mind. His name was Chi Patel. Suddenly, he began to scream because the pain in his head was visceral. He felt it in every part of his body, and he grabbed his head and stumbled into the wall.

"I can't take this pain," he said as he tried to come to grips with it. "I feel like I'm dying." He checked his nose for a bleed, but he didn't see anything. He watched the Indian woman and the taller white man climb into a limo, and JJ slid into seat opposite of them. It happened so quickly that they didn't see him at first. He realized her name was Mani Patel and the man's name was Peter Tanner, her brother n law. When the woman sat down, she looked right at JJ and gasped.

"What are you doing in my car?" The woman said.

"Get out of my car," Peter said with a grimace. When he reached across to touch JJ, he felt an electrical shock that caused him to fly backward.

"Driver! Drive," JJ said. He looked over to Mani, and said, "Mani, we're going to drive around the city for a while. We're just going to talk about things, about life, about Chi."

She placed her hands over her mouth, and asked, "You know where my boy is?"

"Do you believe in god?" JJ asked.

"I believe in many gods," she said.

"What's the meaning of this?" Peter asked.

"I've never believed in a god, at least not a creator god," he said with a straight face. "I was once told that I was a god by being that was well over one million years old." He laughed. "If you can believe that. I was given a gift called the God Spark."

"What kind of nonsense is this?" Peter asked. Before he completed his sentence, JJ shocked him with his powers, and he hit his head on the ceiling of the vehicle.

"Don't interrupt," JJ said. He looked at Mani, and said, "I fought this ancient being. He came here to kill me because of what I would do in the future. I will leave this world, and be involved in an intergalactic war where I kill billions." He paused for a moment and cried a bit. "Just the thought of doing that scares me and sickens me—and makes me wonder where did I go wrong in my life that would make me do such a thing. I'd never want to kill one person let alone billions." He wiped his face and then said. "This being told me it was easier to kill me now because once I went through my apotheoses, killing me wouldn't be so easy. I fought this being just last Thursday on the twelfth. It happened in Gotham."

"Wait? I heard about a meta-human battle in Gotham," she said.

"That was it," he said, "When I saw you on the sidewalk earlier, I saw Chi, but through your eyes," he said. "He's such a beautiful child." JJ paused for a second. "I'm going through another phase to becoming a powerful entity. It's unknown territory for me, but I read thousands of minds simultaneous. I received so much information at once that I thought my head would explode, Peter."

"What?" He asked.

"We've come to a crossroads, Peter," he said, "Tell Mani what you did to Chi."

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Oh! I made a mistake when I told you a godlike being called me a god," he said, "I should have demonstrated my powers." Suddenly, the entire sky filled with bolts of lightning that rained down on the side of the vehicle. Everybody screamed loudly except for JJ. "Can you smell that?" He looked over at Mani, and said, "Chi used to love skating, didn't he?"

"Yes," he said. "But when he turned fourteen, not so much."

"Peter, you took Chi to the Diamondback Skating Arena, and the hebephiles prized him. He would spend the weekend with you, and you passed him around to several men, but one of the men accidentally choked him to death, and you staged it as a kidnapping." JJ looked directly at Mani, and she was looking at Peter.

"Tell me this isn't true?" Mani asked.

Peter looked at JJ with a look of fear. "How can you know?"

"It's not important how I know, but you won't survive this," JJ said. It would be better that you take your own life because I know what's in the field. The souls of so many lost children are calling out to me, and they're begging for your head."

When the limb traveled across the bridge, Peter unlocked the door, opened it, and ran out of the moving vehicle. He fell to the ground and leaped over the side.

"Oh my god," Mani said. "Is he dead?"

JJ looked over at her, and said, "He won't survive the fall."

"What about the field?" She asked.

"There will be a lot of kids buried there," he said. "If Chi's there, we'll find him. But first, give me a chance to stop all these child predators because Peter was part an organization of important men throughout National City."

Peppermint retched and grabbed her stomach-and threw up all over her living room floor. Chunks of bacon and eggs went all over the living room floor, and JJ just looked at her for a moment while he stood on the threshold of the door.

"Ewwwww," he said.

"Don't Ewwww me," she said, "I was there when you shit your pants last year."

"Hey! I thought you weren't going to bring that up," he said, "It was a horrible stomach bug."

Immediately, he ran into her bathroom, grabbed some towels, and cleaned up the mess. Her Momma came into the living room, and looked at JJ cleaning up the throw-up, and asked, "You got my daughter pregnant?"

"I'm not pregnant," Peppermint said with a grimace. "Can't somebody throw up around here without being accused of having a bun in the oven."

Mrs. Lee turned on the television, and the National City News, and it didn't seem any different than any other day. The news reporter with her short afro talked about a child wonder who was near death, suffered from leukemia, but when his father put a guitar in his hands, he learned to play it like a pro. She sat the doctors ran several tests on the boy, and his leukemia went into remission.

News 5 Reporter:

This is Channel Five Action News with Lisa Debarge. I'm with Shonny "Tommy" Tanaga at National City Children's Hospital, and he's somewhat of a miracle kid. Yesterday, he was on his deathbed, and so today he's playing music like a professional guitarist.

End of Report

"Turn it up, Mrs. Lee?" JJ asked with a smile.

He threw all the towels in the washer, washed his hands, and set on the couch next to Mrs. Lee, and Peppermint stood in the back of the couch. When the kid started playing, he JJ said, "What the fuck?"

"JJ, watch your mouth!" Mrs. Lee exclaimed.

"No, Momma. That's JJ's song," Peppermint said. "How can he know it?"

"This is crazy," JJ said, "We're the only ones who know about it."

"And Tommy," she said, "But he's dead, so…" She ran into the bathroom and threw up in the toilet.

"What's going on with you?" Mrs. Lee asked. "You probably should stay home."

"It'll pass," she said with a grimace. "Oh shit!" She ran back into the bathroom and threw up some more.

"Baby, are you okay?" JJ asked.

"She's pregnant," Mrs. Lee said under her breath. "I trusted you to be safe, JJ."

"How do you know that?" JJ asked.

"You better take care of my daughter," she said. "I swear I will never let you live it down if she's pregnant, and you don't take care of her and the baby."

"You can hush that nonsense," he said, "I've always taken care of Peppermint. You don't think the extra money in your husband's bank account was magic do you?"

She looked at him for a moment, and asked, "If Mr. Lee finds out it was you, he'll be pissed."

"For what?" JJ asked. "You think I'm going to let Peppermint suffer? I've been helping out since my programs started making money. For example, those two hundred dollars that mysteriously appeared at the bottom of your purse."

"I never asked you to do that," she said with a grimace.

"Really? What I do I do for Peppermint and don't forget it," he said. "If she's pregnant, I will take care of her. That's that."

"There's no way you'll be able to afford a baby," she said, "You're still in high school."

"I do contract work that brings in a lot of money," he said. "I'm not worried about money, but if she's pregnant, then I demand my child isn't treated like an accident."

She looked directly at JJ with a look of disbelief. "You never make mistakes, JJ. That's what we love about you." She placed her right hand to her mouth. "You did this on purpose."

He looked at her for a moment, and looked her in her face, and said, "I was selfish. I was greedy," he said. He looked down at the ground for a moment. "If she's pregnant, it was because I wanted it."

"So, you decided this all by yourself without her consent?" She asked.

"I don't know what you want me to say, Mrs. Lee," he said. "I see the foolishness in my decision, but it was a decision I made." He sat back for a moment on the couch. "I'm selfish when it comes to your daughter. I need work, and I'm sorry for that." He paused for a moment. "If you're worried about college, it will happen."

Immediately, she hopped off the couch, and then said, "Give me fifty dollars?"

"For what?" He asked.

"I'm taking her to the doctor's office for a pregnancy test," she said.

"If she's pregnant, you better not hurt my baby," he said.

"I don't believe in abortions," she said, "I just want to know, so we can plan accordingly."

'I'm coming," he said.

"You damn right," she said. "Responsibility is the key word from here on out. You will take care of my daughter."

Doctor Kirby's Clinic:

The doctor's office had a brown tint to it, and the walls were plastered with singers from the fifties including Chuck Berry, Elvis, Little Richard, and Fats Domino. Most of the people who came to Doctor Kirby's office were poor, and could barely afford the visit. JJ and Peppermint sat on the back row, and she filled out her personal information. When she finished, he walked the clipboard over to the front desk, and then sat on the floor, against the chair where he sat, and then Peppermint sat on the floor and laid her head on his lap. When the nurse called Peppermint back, JJ came with her.

"We only need her," she said. He looked at her nametag, and it was April Winter.

"Yeah, April. But I'm not leaving her side, so there's that," he said. "She's my fiance, and right now, we want to know if she's pregnant or not."

"Fine," she said, "I don't have all day to argue."

First, she weighed Peppermint on the scale, and she was a little over one hundred and ten pounds. He thought she was lighter than that because she had on all her clothes, shoes, and a jacket. She wasn't dressed like summer. When April took them into one of the offices, she took Peppermint's blood pressure, temperature, and so on, and everything looked normal. She gave her a cup, and she went to the bathroom, urinated in it, and left it on the counter. For some reason, he felt nervous, and he didn't think it made any sense until he realized he feared a negative result more than anything. He knew what he had done, and if it came back negative, he planned on doing it again until he got what he wanted.

He never told her directly, but more indirectly, what he wanted from her. Most of the time, he did everything for her without asking for anything in return. He would give his life for her, and never ask for anything except for a child to carry on his name. He went through scenarios with her and wrestled with all kinds of what-ifs, but now the day of reckoning had come. When the doctor walked into the office, he had a small fro, bifocals, and wore a lab coat.

"So, how are you guys doing today?" He asked.

"Fine, sir," they said in unison.

"Well, you're completely healthy," he said, "Probably the healthiest person to come through my doors in a long time." He looked at the chart, and JJ saw the positive on it immediately. "You are pregnant. Four months."

Peppermint put her head in her hands and began to weep. "Please tell me those are tears of joy," he said softly. She looked over at him with her almond-shaped eyes, full of tears, and anger. "I'm extremely happy right now." He placed his arms around her as she cried. "I promise you a great life."

"What about school? What about college?" She asked. "Are you going to leave me, and then I'll just be another single mother?"

Outside the Clinic:

"You're making all these promises, but what happens when the bills come? What happens when I'm fat and no longer what you like?" She asked. "Can your love for me endure through that?"

"You're being silly," he said with a grimace. "I'm not going anywhere, and you know it."

"I'm scared, JJ," she said.

"This is new territory for us, but we'll be okay," he said, "I promise."

October 19:

JJ's Momma looked at him long and hard as he sat on the couch, and he knew exactly why she was in a mood but didn't want to initiate the conversation. "So, you purposely impregnated Peppermint just to entrap her, didn't you?"

"I don't like the word entrap," he said, "What do you mean?"

"You knew her father wanted you two to break apart," she said. "Do you know how many interracial relationships survive, son?"

"I know the number is small, Momma," he said calmly. "We've looked at the numbers, but I'm focused."

"Can't you see you've already started off on the wrong foot?" She asked.

"Started off?" He asked. "We've been together for years. We're not just starting off."

"When she finds out what you did, she's going to look at you differently," she said. "Oh, Friday they're holding a little get together at the hospital. It's a Halloween thing. It starts at six in the evening to whenever. Bring Peppermint."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

JJ wore his black, gothic wear with a fedora, and black-rimmed glasses without lenses while Peppermint wore her gothic lolita dress, laced ribbons, tights, mini-top hat, ruffles, and blouse. The outfit had an elegant appearance that JJ loved. Her mini-top hat set off to the left side of her head. She had a sadness about her, and it had to do with the pregnancy, but JJ didn't want to bring it up. She had a slight hump, a hump that wasn't necessarily noticeable at first sight, but she was showing ever so slightly. When they walked into the party at the hospital, most of the people's eyes turned in their direction because of the way they carried themselves.

Immediately, JJ noticed Shonny standing on the other side of the room with the crimson red guitar, and he thought the whole scene looked familiar. Without hesitation, he walked over to the teenager, and asked, "Shonny, I heard you play on the news the other day. You sounded like an old friend of mine."

"It's a good song," he said, "I had worked on it for about an hour before I played it."

"Who gave you that song?" JJ asked.

"Why?" He asked. He began to laugh for a moment.

"Did I say something funny?" JJ asked.

"Such the atheist," Shonny said with a smile. "Did you think I would just die when that warehouse collapsed?"

"Tommy?" JJ asked.

"Tommy Tanaga," he said, "But yes. I'm Tommy."

"But how?" Peppermint asked.

"Vera's a witch," he said, "At one point, she planned on transferring her conscience into somebody the world wouldn't notice, so she'd feel like a real girl."

"She wouldn't do that," JJ said.

He laughed. "Anyway, I used the spell to transfer my conscience into my guitar. When Shonny picked it up, I took over his mind."

"Is Shonny still there?" JJ asked.

"Yeah. But he's not in control," he said, "Just want you to know, I'm going to destroy this city, and Supergirl, you, Peppermint, or that Guardian can't stop me."

"Why are you so angry?" Peppermint asked. "What happened to you?"

"Because of you, JJ," he said, "All I want to do is take everything from you, and burn it."

"I'm not going to play games with you, Tommy," he said, "I'll take your life if you come near us."

"You can't protect Peppermint twenty-four hours a day," he said.

Suddenly, he pushed him into the wall and had his forearm on Shonny's neck. "You better not come near her."

"Daddy, help me!" Shonny exclaimed. He looked directly at JJ, and whispered, "Niggas don't know how to act."

"Get off him," Charlie said. "He's sick!"

"That's not your son," JJ said. "He's dangerous."

"Just get out of here, thug," he screamed.

When JJ turned around, several people were filming the incident, and before he made it out of the building, a slew of friends sent him negative messages, including James and Kara.

Message From James Olsen

Dude! WTF. Are you beating on cancer patients now?

End of Message

Message From Kara

That's not right! You need help. WTF! Eat a Snickers already.

End of Message

Message From Nate

Dude! Your shenanigans are all over the Internet. You're like a pariah.

End of Message

Message From Maggie

SPIT!

End of Message

Message From J'onn

You're acting like a White Martian.

End of Message

Message From Vera

I'm not going to say anything against you because I care for you and Peppermint too much to jump to conclusions. If you need somebody to talk to I'm here.

End of Message

Message From Winn

What are you smoking? Dude! You can't give cancer patients the beat down!

End of Message

Home…

JJ received a phone call from Brad Winifred who had the titular name of Man of Action. He was one of those fake news reporters who sensationalized everything, and JJ knew the incident with Shonny was a hot topic. It was like everybody-including the people who liked him-loved the negative attention he received. Of all the negative messages and death threats he received, Maggie just texting, "SPIT," hurt the worse for some reason.

"You want to do a live showing with me tomorrow on the six o'clock news?" JJ asked. "I had a tiff with Shonny, and nothing more."

"It will be excellent for ratings," he said, "In a few days, everybody will have forgotten about it."

"I'll be there," JJ said.

When he hung up the phone, he looked over at Peppermint sleeping on the couch, and then he walked out of the apartment and took flight. He landed on James' balcony, and he was in his hot tub by himself.

"No, you can't get in," James said. "Can't believe you attacked a cancer patient."

"There's shit going on right now that I don't fully understand," he said, "That cancer patient is Tommy Tater."

James laughed. "Dude, you're crazy! I think we saw that building collapse on him."

"I wouldn't lie about this," he said, "Or try to wiggle my way out of punishment. I'm saying this to warn you. I don't know what he plans on doing."

"Ugh! You're serious?" James asked.

"Somehow Tommy transferred his soul into the crimson guitar," JJ said. He looked at James and knew he didn't believe. "I don't know how he did it, but when the sick kid strummed it, Tommy infected him like a virus."

"Damn!" James hopped out of the tub, and said, "Have you told Kara?"

"Nope! I'm not sure if we should bother him if he hasn't committed a crime," he said. "You just need to know in case. Oh, I have an interview with Brad Winifred tomorrow."

"That guy's a dog," James said.

"It's at six o'clock," he said, "Do whatever you need to do, but have crews ready during the interview."

"What are you planning?" James asked.

"Just know I put my elbow in Shonny's throat in the hopes Brad would interview me."

Interview…

The set looked less extravagant in person than on television. A young, half-dressed woman looked at JJ's Gothic dress, and said, "You don't need any extra make-up." She looked over at Peppermint and smiled.

"You don't like my Afro Goth style?" He asked.

"I love it," she said, "I saw your Christmas Rock Jam at City Hall last year," she said, "You were like a hero of mine until you attacked a cancer patient."

"You don't know the full story," Peppermint said. She wore her lolita, black dress with straight black hair. She had a black collar around her neck with black stockings.

Brad Winifred stepped onto the platform, shook JJ's and Peppermint's right hands, and sat across from them. JJ felt the heat beaming off the camera, and lights were brighter than normal. The faces around the studio were somber, but it was feigned anger. The only authentic person besides himself in the entire building was Peppermint. Nobody cared about a black kid choking a black kid unless there was money to be made. But at the same time, he had to be professional with Brad Winifred, Man of Action, because National City loved him.

Brad, looking dapper, crossed his legs, and had a feminine swag about him, and he had already seen his true passion through the eyes of Peter Tanner. JJ had the power to incinerate the man, and everybody in the building with a mere thought, but that wasn't feasible. He held Peppermint's hand as Brad questioned him about the altercation.

"What happened between you and Shonny Tanaga?" Brad asked.

"He played a song I wrote a few months back, but only three people knew about it, and the third person died," he said, "I wanted to know where he learned it because only my lovely girlfriend and I knew about the song."

"So, you attacked him?" He asked.

"No. It takes a lot for me to attack anybody. He threatened to kill my girlfriend," JJ said. "I'm not going to lie. I lost it."

"That's true," Peppermint said. "He said he'd kill me at some point."

"But he has cancer, and isn't in a position to hurt anybody," Brad said.

"No. He doesn't have cancer at all," JJ said, "If a doctor tested him for cancer right now, it would come back negative."

"How do you know?" He asked.

"I know quite a bit. I'm a planner. I have things planned days, months, and years out. For example, I planned this interview, but you think you planned it. Do you know Peter Tanner?"

"Yes. He's an old friend of mine," he said.

"I thought you guys had a business together?' JJ asked informally.

"What does this have to do with anything?" Brad asked.

"Oh! You own Diamondback Skating Area," JJ said.

"I know that place," Peppermint said.

"Yes. I've been co-owner for about ten years now," he said.

"This morning, early, NCPD pulled Mister Tanner's body out of the reservoir," JJ said, "They haven't confirmed the identity of the man yet, so I'm telling them who it is now."

"Did you kill him?" Brad asked frantically.

JJ laughed. "No. He jumped to his death after I asked him to turn himself into the police," he said with a serious look. Peppermint stood up, walked over to the side of the studio.

"Where's she going?" Brad asked.

"She's anticipating your reactions," JJ said.

"To what?" He asked.

JJ looked at him for a moment, "The same way I asked Mister Tanner to turn himself into the police, I'm now asking you to do the same thing. Turn yourself into the police now, and stand trial for your crimes."

"Why would I do that?" He asked.

"For all the kids you raped and killed," JJ said. "There's a field on the outskirts of the city called Jenson's Field. It looks normal enough. But if the cops go there now, they will find nearly one hundred dead boys between the ages of eleven and sixteen. You've personally killed seventeen kids by your own hands." He looked at Brad's face, and it was one of shock and disbelief. "You're a hebephile and murderer."

"How do you know this?" He said as he jumped to his feet. He pulled a gun out of his coat pocket, pointed it at JJ, and tried to shoot him, but a bolt of lightning hit him in the hand. Brad fell to his knees screaming and crying, and several of the news reporters exited the area. It was just the cameraman, Peppermint, JJ, and Brad on the floor screaming, "You've ruined me."

JJ turned to the cameraman, and said, "Put the camera on me." He turned the camera towards him, and then JJ said, "NCPD, go get those kids now. Bring all the families around the country some peace, and get those kids out of the field. The men behind these murders are Peter Tanner, Brad Winifred, Judge Sampson, Mike, Chief Douglas, Right, Principal Eric Nitcher, Travis Kindle CPA, and Douglas Wright. There may be others involved, but we must start here.

Within five minutes after the interview, the entire studio filled with cops, and they escorted Brad out of the building. In addition, local, national and international media showed up in the field, and as they pulled the bodies out of the ground, crowds of spectators showed up and stayed with the cops. They supplied refreshments, dinner, and did everything to keep them comfortable.

Peppermint stood by him as he watched the cops extract all the bodies out of the field, and they cried. "This is horrible."

"There's so many," he said, "There are fields like this around the world. This barely constitutes the tip of the iceberg."

When JJ and Peppermint walked past the crowd of spectators, an Indian woman ran up to him, and said, "Thank you." It was Mani Patel, and she had tears racing down her face.

"I'm sorry this happened to you," JJ said. He hugged her and then held Peppermint's hand, and they disappeared into the night.

Epilogue

Shonny Tommy Tanaga set up his computer, camera, and everything he needed in his bedroom, and started with his first broadcast. He called his podcast, "Tommy's Hour." He made a channel devoted to the denigration of black women. He sat behind the microphone with his long hair, baggy pants, and smoking a cigarette and talking to an audience of about two hundred people about the ills of black people and black women in general. His final broadcast before somebody burned down his studio with him in it was the following:

Tommy's Hour:

It's the twenty-fifth of October. I've been getting death threats since my first broadcast, and I know exactly who's doing it. Cindy X, I don't give two shits about you, you black bitch. If you want some of Shonny Tommy Tanaga, you know where I live. I've survived cancer, and I'll survive your black ass. I heard what you said about me last week, you weave wearing cunt. Let me calm down. It's just these people are cowards. They want to kill me because of my words. They can say some insane shit about me, but as soon as I tell the truth, I'm the bad guy. So, as you know I spent nearly two years on my deathbed, and it gave me plenty of time to watch a lot of television. And it seemed like every time I turned on the news, I saw nothing but weave wearing, thinking they're something-special black whores. And I tell you what, there isn't anything worse than a black woman who thinks she's cute. She'll put anything on her head, and she doesn't give a damn what it is. When you see one walking down the street, go to the other side of the street because their stupidity is infectious. Black women are capricious, and you just don't know if they're going to be hot or cold. I've been giving this broadcast for about a week now, and I tell you what: I hate black women.

Now, I have this video of this nappy headed ho, Kisha Reynolds, out of Tulsa, and this bitch stabbed her boyfriend in the stomach nearly killing him because she said he tried to give her a hysterectomy through sex. Now, you have to be the dumbest black bitch on the planet to do some shit like that. I'm so pissed that I smell smoke. Wait a minute, people? What the? My house is on fire...

End of Hour

Gotham: 10/26/2017

The Libertine Hoghead Lodge:

Private Meeting Notes:

President Eric Tennyson: I've been over the Libertine's for six years, and I'll be damned if we let the foolishness going on in National City expose our organization. This is the first time in over two thousand years that our group has faced the possibility of exposure. We asked our National City branch to stop with the child killings on four, separate occasions, but they proceeded down that horrible route of child murder. We are hebephiles, and we don't find pleasure in the murders of our favorites. We can't undo the nearly two hundred children who died at the hands of the Libertines in National City, but we can cut off that branch before it infects the entire body. At the end of the day, we can't trust our comrades to keep our clandestine organization a secret while in police custody. The sooner we dispatch them the safer will be.

Chairman Nick Benton: What of the boy? He knew all the players in National City, and he said they would suss out the rest of the members of our beloved organization. I fear he may already be on to us.

President Eric Tennyson: Once I receive confirmation all the heads in National City are dead, I believe JJ Johnson will drop the subject. He'll go back to playing his little guitar and salivating over his girlfriend. He'll be too busy being a high school student to worry about what we're doing. As long as no more kids die, we can pretty much live a life free as we want to be.

James Tull: Should we at least keep an eye on him?

President Eric Tennyson: We could, but we need to leave him alone because he's not just any kid. If we draw his attention, then he'll hunt us down. But as long as he thinks the deaths of the Libertines in National City is the end of it, he won't bother looking any further.

End of Notes:

JJ, Peppermint, Nate, Vera, Johnny, and Becky sat in Mickey's and had a large, cheese and pepperoni pizza, a birthday cake for Vera, and a lot of soda pop. JJ bought a lot of chicken wings, red bull, and some other treats for his friends to eat. They sat in the rear, in a room apart from the main dinner, and played songs, dance, and sang. At first, most of them were in a saddened mood because Tommy-the one they knew-wasn't with them. But since it was Vera's birthday, they tried to be upbeat. She stood in the middle of the dining room, near perfect, and Nate couldn't take his eyes off her. She was dressed in all black, svelte, and wearing two pigtails. With a black band around her head. Peppermint set a large, white box on the table, and JJ pulled out his acoustic guitar. "I'm going to sing you a song, a song about not being confined, a song about freedom. For so long your whole life, you've been trapped in your body. But today you're free, Vera. You have a new life, a new beauty, a new appreciation for the world. You're a highway, girl. You're are the sky. You're free," he said with a smile. "I'm going to sing, 'I am a highway' by Audioslave," he said. When he strummed the strings, Vera began to sob, but the reason he chose "I am a highway" was that her urinary pouch had held her back for so long, and she never had a chance to be free. Everything she did in life, she had to worry about her bag leaking. And now that she was a normal girl, she had the opportunity to live her life to the fullest, so he sang, "I am a highway." He explained to her later that she had the opportunity to drive as far as she wanted without her bag leaking or fly as high as the sky without having a change her clothes. For the first time in her life, she was completely free. When he finished singing the song, he said, "Happy Birthday, old friend."

Peppermint handed her the white box, and when she opened it, it was a beautiful gothic, red dress with ruffles. It was the one she had admired online at school while she and Peppermint worked on a project for History class.

"Oh my gawd, JJ,' she said, "This is too much."

"We all chipped in," he said.

"That's true," Nate said. "He took my cookie money."

Everybody laughed.

"Yep! No new video games for me," Johnny said.

(The End)

Next Book

The Vulcan: The Broken Bat


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